Guild Wars 2

To quote from another thread regarding raids:

Rauderi.8706:

So what ends up happening is:
1 tank in Soldier gear
1 healer in Zealot gear
8 Full-meta DPS in Berserker or Sinister (or Viper?) gear.

So why have other armour sets (like nomads, monks, givers, knights, marauders, etc.) in the game? If these sets cannot be used (and thanks to the enrage timer it’s a hard “cannot” because the content requires optimal dps or the raid wipes) in raid content then isn’t it pointless to have them available since the required endgame playstyle is dps or go home?

Mind you I suspect that, like dungeons, the raid content will be “hard” for a while and then, when all the zerker-pros have passed through it, the content will be turned into a faceroll that isn’t entertaining for anyone. Dropping the hard enrage timer (preferably sooner rather than later) doesn’t reduce skill but it does allow for more variety in builds, it allows hybrid damage specs (rampagers) to be viable, allows monk-tanks, and givers-healers. Don’t drop the mob health, don’t reduce the damage, don’t simplify the mechanics, just lose the enrage timer and the world of raids will be open to more than just the zerker meta.

I don’t want easy, and I don’t want cookie-cutter … let raids be a test of my skill, not a test of which website I got my meta build from.

Its true with zerk n sinister viper, but for tank n healer it can be more varied, it’s more about hitting the toughness or healing sweetspots.

At least so many options gives an illusion of choice, where it is easier for the less informed to gear and play wrong/not optimal.

Without the enrage timer, raids stop being a test of your skill, since everyone can just facetank it and slowly whittle down the bosses.
Removing these item sets from the game is obviously a bad idea, since outside of raids players are free to choose whatever setup they prefer and we still have PvP (WvW and tPvP).
As to your last point: Raids are not intended to be completed by the majority of players, as such, it is probably not in ANET’s mind to open them up to “more than just the zerker meta”.

because we don’t want this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0anv1XswfIc to be possible to defeat raid.

Surviving as zerker is always harder than nomad. “let raids be a test of my skill” so do you think dropping enrage time will make raid harder?

If you were good, you wouldn’t need to go to any website to get a good build, you can craft your build by yourself depending your role and situation in the team.

Because no one wants to farm 20 different gear sets to be efficient.

But yes, the gear system is outdated. It would be much better if you could just choose your own attributes.

Veydar.5017:

Without the enrage timer, raids stop being a test of your skill, since everyone can just facetank it and slowly whittle down the bosses.

This really gets my goat because it’s so patently not true. If you screw up the mechanics, the raid wipes; doesn’t matter what gear or what build, if you don’t stack in the green field/get off the platform/beat the boss before the platform is destroyed then the raid wipes. Removing the enrage timer just means that you have to beat the mechanics consistently more often, the fight goes longer but no matter your gear you can’t face tank the bosses because the mechanics will kill you.

At the moment there is literally no choice, you have to run zerker (or condi equivalent) or your raid will fail. That, to me, is bad design; enrage timers are a lazy gear/meta check, nothing more.

I am going to post all the different kind of gears we sickest guild [NA] used to get through the raid.
Not all on the same boss, we switched to fit our different comps.
Commander
Berserker
Assassin (hi gwyn)
Rabid
Knight
Viper/sinister
Cleric
Valkyrie (not all but mix and match)
Minstrel
Zealots
I know some other group used celestial and even magi. The problem that anet had with the berserker meta was the fact nothing else was used at all. Now of course DPS role are going to used berserker/assassin/sinister/viper, if you want to be a DPS and use nomad/knights/celestial you should just be the tank, different role uses different gears.

Im not saying those were optimal, but they worked, and we had over a minutes left on every bosses, even 3 on vale guardian.

wait…soldier gear for tank?? Does it mean that some groups would actually take me as their tank with my full ascended soldier guardian/DH?

binidj.5734:

Veydar.5017:

Without the enrage timer, raids stop being a test of your skill, since everyone can just facetank it and slowly whittle down the bosses.

This really gets my goat because it’s so patently not true. If you screw up the mechanics, the raid wipes; doesn’t matter what gear or what build, if you don’t stack in the green field/get off the platform/beat the boss before the platform is destroyed then the raid wipes. Removing the enrage timer just means that you have to beat the mechanics consistently more often, the fight goes longer but no matter your gear you can’t face tank the bosses because the mechanics will kill you.

At the moment there is literally no choice, you have to run zerker (or condi equivalent) or your raid will fail. That, to me, is bad design; enrage timers are a lazy gear/meta check, nothing more.

You’re right, I should have worded it differently: Without the enrage timer, the only thing left to do is taking care of the mechanics, while slowly [….]

Veydar.5017:

binidj.5734:

Veydar.5017:

Without the enrage timer, raids stop being a test of your skill, since everyone can just facetank it and slowly whittle down the bosses.

This really gets my goat because it’s so patently not true. If you screw up the mechanics, the raid wipes; doesn’t matter what gear or what build, if you don’t stack in the green field/get off the platform/beat the boss before the platform is destroyed then the raid wipes. Removing the enrage timer just means that you have to beat the mechanics consistently more often, the fight goes longer but no matter your gear you can’t face tank the bosses because the mechanics will kill you.

At the moment there is literally no choice, you have to run zerker (or condi equivalent) or your raid will fail. That, to me, is bad design; enrage timers are a lazy gear/meta check, nothing more.

You’re right, I should have worded it differently: Without the enrage timer, the only thing left to do is taking care of the mechanics, while slowly [….]

And there is nothing wrong about it at all… period. Players should be able to decide whether they want to be more tanky or more zerky. It is how this game was created. Then elitists from wow came and created this stupid zerker meta.

Like Trice said. There is a lot of different gear that can be used. We don’t even know which one is the best and people are still asking for some meta that nobody know.

We used Soldier, Cleric, Sinister, Viper, Beserker, Assassins, Celestial, Magi and Nomad. Not necessarily a full set of each, sometime it’s mix and match.

To answer the OP question in general. NOt because there is plenty of different gear that ALL of them can be optimal in a content. Think about it. How can Anet design a content for all kind of gear to be optimal? Right now there is glassy gear which give you the best dps for Dungeon/Fractal which is Zerker, Assassin, Sinister and Viper, to a less extend Rampager and Rabid.

After that you have different combination that work great for Tank and Healer in raid.

Otherwise, it’s either gear for suboptimal, niche, or training gear. For exmple, someone doing only Wold Boss don’t really care about it’s dps, so he could prefer to play Soldier because that feel more comfortable for him.

Finally you have WvW in which a lot of gear are good. From Soldier for a Zerg Guardian to Marauder for Roamer, passing by Celestial for a Elementalist, even Nomad or Sentinel for a Commander. A lot of gear are good there.

So that’s why there is so many gear in the game. Because the game isn’t just optimal Dungeon/Fractal. There is raids, Open World, WvW Zerg, WvW Roaming and there is different person with some wanting to do the most optimal, some want to explore different build, other want to have an easy time, other want to fill niche role, etc.

binidj.5734:

I don’t want easy, and I don’t want cookie-cutter … let raids be a test of my skill, not a test of which website I got my meta build from.

How can you ask us to take you seriously after that dude. What website? There is no freaking meta right now. Even if there was, what composition is the best? Hundred of different combinaison worked so far. Did you even tried the raid? We maybe worked 1hours max on our composition, 12 hours at practising the first boss before we got it. Continue to search for the best build so you can wipe with the best build.