Guild Wars 2

I started playing GW2 about 2 years ago and I have to say this is my favorite MMO ever. After getting it, abandoning and trying others, I still find myself returning and enjoying.

What concerns me is how dominant this supposed Meta has become on modes such as PVE, as I can understand PVP and WEvW being competitive need some semblant of balance and I agree, Anet hasn’t been doing its homework if they still nerf/buff stuff on a bunch instead of splitting game modes.

But then I ask myself, is Meta even necessary to follow concerning PVE?

Let’s be honest here, GW2 has maybe the easiest PVE content on the market, and even proffesional raiding groups as Quantify say they usually run whatever build they fancy on raids and they can still be completed without having a huge DPS loss.

That said, when puging you can fail horribly, but you can also have fun. I just see a lot of people addicted to “being the best”, and instead of trying new things they go with cookie cutter builds that just lead into more frustration when those 1000 gold sets get out of the meta because “We’re losing 5% dps and 4 minutes of speed”.

There is no single MMO where classes are 100% Balanced (if you expect the necro to have sustain paired with its 2 HP gauges, minion summoning and on top of that add him the weapon DPS of all classes and group support then keep dreaming), and I feel some people fails to grasp this isn’t WoW and the gameplay mechanics are completely different than just stacking and mantaining a set rotation, that if you want to use class diversity of course, as GW2 is hardly stationary.

I still wonder why people still submits to this form of elitism, where they have to set aside their favorite classes in order to participate on a Meta which isn’t really needed…

Some people discover the “meta” on their own and they invest thousands of gold in making their build the most viable it can be. It can be devastating to invest that much and then have it ruined in one swift patch…. especially if your build is no longer even half-decent.

True, no MMO has perfectly balanced classes. However, the balance gap in GW2 is by far one of the largest I’ve seen in an MMO. Simply google “Class damage” to find out what I mean. As a mesmer, I try to buff my utility skills up as much as possible… and when a nerf comes along that destroys that, then I’m out of luck because I do no damage without them.

Aldath.1275:

That said, when puging you can fail horribly, but you can also have fun. I just see a lot of people addicted to “being the best”, and instead of trying new things they go with cookie cutter builds that just lead into more frustration when those 1000 gold sets get out of the meta because “We’re losing 5% dps and 4 minutes of speed”.
I still wonder why people still submits to this form of elitism, where they have to set aside their favorite classes in order to participate on a Meta which isn’t really needed…

I will try to explain using my own observations- for I am not a “Pro”..just another happy go-lucky player of a wonderful game .
There are MANY players in video games that feel the NEED to ‘min-max’ everything they do—the “Balls out/ all or nothing/ play gud or get out” sort of personality.
They demand the best in their gaming experience..they want a ‘challenge’ for their time..not a walk in the garden. They create a build..make charts for gosh sakes- map out every second of the mission/raid/dungeon.
These are the creators of the ‘Meta’- they feel it is the best of the best of that type of play style….and that’s the key phrase- their play-style.
We don’t have to be sheeple and bow to this as the ONLY way to play the game.
Corny as it sounds…you can play the way you want in GW2- set a goal for whatever gear, and areas you want to explore.
You don’t have to META…but if you do, go in with an open mind, and never take criticisms personally.
Just my blatherings… just enjoy your free time!
(And don’t try to glide a huge Charr in WvW off the wall…KK?)

Aldath.1275:

I still wonder why people still submits to this form of elitism, where they have to set aside their favorite classes in order to participate on a Meta which isn’t really needed…

I don’t think it’s elitism. Meta requires no thought for a player to parrot, and there’s easy-to-find info on how to make the meta builds work. It means the players can get into the game faster and do the content knowing they’ll be effective at it. When it comes to group/raid play, focusing on meta makes it easier for the groups to have/know their synergy. Groups need to be able to work together, and I think it’s understandable that there are some who’d like to do what they can to increase the odds they’ll be victorious… the meta means groups can skip the ‘learning about what the others are doing, and trying to figure out how to best apply that to the challenge’ stage of content requiring that level of organization.

That said, I don’t bother looking at meta. My endgame is build experimentation. I get an idea, and I try it out for a while. But, I also don’t group, I have no guild, and I don’t (yet) raid. I find the PvE content a blast to solo, and my build experimentation (I think) has taught me the ins-and-outs of my main profession (Warrior) better than I would have gleamed from playing a meta.

If/When I get into raids, higher tier fractals, etc, I do plan on trying out the meta builds. This is because I’ll be able to quickly learn the content I’m facing, and some of the things useful to overcome the content. After that I’ll bring my own builds to the battlefield… by then I should be playing with a regular pool of players who know me and I know them; players I know how to work together with.

~EW

I do understand what you say; however a vast majority of the in game population seems to follow the Meta as a “to-do” list or Bible, gutting out classes out of content that was designed to include everyone.

My wife and I go into level 50+ fractals together and she uses whatever stats, but has good skills and she doesn’t dies constantly, and I usually roll what I like and enjoy pugging together. I have cleared a Raid once with a learning group by using my Power A/A Ranger which is everything contrary to what Meta or I think simple logic would recomment, as being honest, Viper’s a nd condi in general is helluva expensive.

That said, I have a Meta Build (Warrior, which is pretty easy to make) assuming it’s needed, but even when competitive guilds say it’s possible to clear content doing whatever I feel better.

This is of course all personal, but I think the fact people believes there’s only a specific set of combinations aviable to be succesful at non competitive content as if it was competitive, it hurts the experience…

The meta in MMO group PvE is about convenience and belief. It’s convenient to be able to select teammates using criteria you believe will provide the convenience of success.

Meta builds are generally not well-suited to solo open world play. Yet most players spend a significant amount of time participating in this sort of content. So right there a big chunk of your time would be better spent designing a non-meta build.

I had another thief player just the other day claim that a certain champion HP in TD was too difficult to solo. So I did it for him with my thief, while he repeatedly died and ran back to the HP. When I talked to him afterward he claimed the issue was that he wasn’t as fast a player as I am, but upon talking further it became clear that he was using a straight glass meta build. Big surprise, huh?

But this even applies in organized group content. Obviously, you want to maximize your damage output in these scenarios while still covering whatever other roles you’re needed for. However, you still need to stay alive and especially while the group is still learning encounters, adding some survivability into a meta dps build can actually be beneficial.

Basically, the meta only applies to a very narrow band of content and really only applies in the strictest sense to experienced groups who have the content on farm (speed dungeons/fractals, raid farming, etc.).

It was the same thing over in WoW. People who claim the meta is the only way (in PvE) are just used to a different type of play than the average player. When nobody makes mistakes, you can survive with a straight out dps build. But you aren’t doing your learning group any favors by dying after putting out sick deeps!

Feel free to do whatever you want, guys. But understand what Meta builds are and why they exist in the first place.

Meta builds are not “made up” by some “Elitists” to shour at you. People try to accomplish a certain goal (getting through, being fast, low-manning) in especially “difficult” PvE content; these are Fractals and Raids. To accomplish these goals they try to take the combinations of classes and traits that are most beneficial in that situation.

If thats not what you want, like you just grind open world, i am sure no one of the “top pve guilds” would tell you you have to run a meta build there. They simply hardly care for that content. But if you enter content, that is specifically designed to require optimization – run a build that you or someone else can back up with maths and logical selections.

And please don’t blame the meta, if someone is just far too unexperienced to know what they do.