Guild Wars 2

Ok this question comes to my mind many times that why ANET keeps introducing new armor combinations when you ONLY need berserk gear if you never do WvW.

I have 11 character slots with 1 character of every profession and 2 ele’s and all of them are FULL berserk (some with assassin trinkets).

You can choose whatever the heck you want for pvp without actually wearing that armor and for dungeons and solo’ing world content berserk is always the way to go as its faster. Why would you run soldier’s gear so you can absorb couple of hits from a normal or veteran mob while you can run berserk gear and kill the same mob before it even reaches you.

I haven’t done fractals since HoT but i had a personal level of 53 before ascended armor was introduced when you could only have 45 max AR (or was it 55?) and i always ran with berserk gear, no problem.

Haven’t done raids (the reason i probably left wow, i no longer have the will of using headphones and sit all night long trying to kill boss and getting wipes over and over like i had 8 years ago when i was 20, probably never gonna do raids in gw2) but i think that might actually be one pve format where more tankier gears would be useful.

I had couple of professions for world bosses with soldiers gear like tequatl and tri wurm but ever since ANET changed that you could now crit epic bosses the usefulness of non-berserk gear reduced even more and they also use berserk gear now.

I say those various combinations are only out there to confuse newer players. Even WvW players who run condi build use very specific gear usually like dire, rest are only there just for the sake of it.

Ehh, you’re projecting your own beliefs too much.

Berserker is optimal for a certain play style, and most instanced content but we can’t really say it’s all a player needs. Lots of people run other stats and combinations, for various reasons, and enjoy using them.

Condi state equipment is used in raids on specific builds needed for certain roles.

The only character I use anything but zerker on outside of raids and WvW is my fractal guardian who is a bit tanky and offers a lot of team support. He uses PVT armor.

Zerker is my primary as well. As you said, I would never use Settler’s stats.

Yes, quite a number actually, including just exploring possibilities. There are times when having more than one dimension rather than being the most optimized whatever it is just simply is more fun. I don’t think any gold I’ve spent on experiments and builds was ever wasted even if it didn’t turn out as I hoped.

But I guess that’s not necessarily how we all play.

For practice maybe? For classes or new builds that I’m not too familiar, I like to add a little toughness and/or vitality. It makes the fight take longer, but allows me to learn skill rotations and how to react to different situations. Zerk gear tends to shorten fights, with the enemy or myself dying too fast to learn anything that would help in a tougher fight. As I get more comfortable with the build/class , I change to a more offensive stat combo

Different builds use different things. I was working on a sinister set for my necro originally, think I might just do Viper on her instead.

I enjoy a combination of celestial and zerk on my ele, just for the hell of it.

As soon as you know your char and your opponents and have a reliable (non-laaging) Internet connection full damage is probably superior.

However, if you learn your char or a new area with new mobs, or have many laags some fault tolerance (life and defense) definitely increases your fun as you die less often. That’s why I really don’t undertstand why everyone tell newbies to dress in full berzerk.

On the other side I wonder why I should kills mobs I know inside-out at all and why should I be especially fast on that. Usually I ignore them as they are to boring to kill.

Whatever kill-speed you have: Killing mobs isn’t the way to be successful (e.g. Gold/hour) in GW2. Other ways are usually better.

If I do something like dungeons or fractals, I usually prefer that people dress adequate to their skill, which is quite often not berzerk. If someone doesn’t do full damage you may need a minute longer, but who cares (I don’t), if someone is dressed over it’s skill the party turns out into a waste quite often.

Over the course of 3 years+ of my gw2 playtime’s i have tried different builds with different combination of armor sets. I have tried full celestial ele, rampager on engie, soldier guard and eventually i came to the conclusion that zerk is all you need if you never do wvw. Ofcourse this is my personal preference.

The normal world doesn’t pose significant enough danger and every class has some kind of ability if you want to kill that specific hard mob. See a group of veterans and you are on your squishy ele? Summon an earth elemental and send him first to get aggro then fill the area with meteor shower and problem solved. Same with thief.
Not to mention i have been recently soloíng most of HoT hero point champions with my ranger decked in full berserk and highest dps build.

I am currently doing world completition on my 4th character to get those gifts of exploration and when you have seen all and you know the ins and outs of your profession then berserk just makes it go faster.

EDIT: To answer the above guy, i am from India so my average ping is ~180ms, never had a problem dodging stuff and running full glass canon gear and build.

Very rarely in any game is any encounter not built around a specific result. In terms of 1v1 regular mobs + veterans your odds of solo death are literally zero no matter what armor/playstyle/tactics you choose. In terms of an elite your odds are slightly higher than zero and you may need some tactics or to dodge. In terms of Champions your odds go way up if you don’t take defensive stats or maneuvers generally speaking. In terms of Legendary enemies your odds are a lot slimmer without a real game plan.

This is just how it was designed. Efficiency of completing a task is specific to the level of difficulty of the enemy not the stats you choose. The fact that it is so heavily dependent on your opponent instead of player choice (which is how they got away with giving everyone the same base stats) is why it “feels” this way.

Working as intended to only “need” one set of armor. Lack of trinity and the entire game being designed and marketed as “play how you want and you should be able to beat any/all content” is why you only “need” one set.

Raids pushed away from this with the hardcore scene, but otherwise, there is no hard requirement to own multiple sets for a functional character, which is also intended as it lets players not need to worry about spending tons of cash on many different sets of gear/worry about needing to bring different gear to different encounters. Running DPS will cut down on time to beat content, at the cost of making an encounter more difficult. There are a handful of videos of a cleric’s(?) GS warrior soloing lupi with no blocks, dodges, or reflects – just pure facetank – made to demonstrate that building tankier does make you tankier to the point where a lot of content can be trivialized. That said, it took the guy a LONG time to kill the boss. But seeing as he could basically have done it AFK, it makes sense.

Complaints about the berserker “requirement” stem only from people trying to reduce time when plowing through content either from boredom/wanting to make money faster or for the sake of running faster. I’ve never joined a party in my history running dungeons where I was asked for a gear check unless it was explicitly stated in the party description (in which case don’t join, because unless you intend to uphold speed running with them, you have no reason to be there), and in some instances, some of my fastest, smoothest runs have come from non-berserker players just playing better than whatever FoTM DPS class/build is.

So really, the only “reason” not to play full DPS is for personal preference, or if perhaps you’re going into combat that simply can’t be done while playing glassy as a solo player, and such content exists albeit it’s secluded. On the converse, the only reason not to be a tank is because it makes things go faster; almost all boss encounters in core Tyria do not have heals unlike many other games, so there’s no minimum amount of damage required to beat the content, just time.

There’s always going to be an optimal way of playing, defined either by the game developers (trinity systems/encounter design) or players (efficiency of content completion within expected skill thresholds). I think that’s why GW2 released the game as “play how you want” to begin with, because a meta is uncontrollable and preventing people from beating content via build/gear decisions is a pointless obstacle that just makes things more frustrating for everyone while not actually solving the whole persistent-optimization problem.

Yes, there are many reasons why a player may choose or need to use non-zerk gear.

GW2 has a great community (in general) but this issue of “zerk-gear-or-kick” is the worst mentality that plagues the game. As others have stated, there are a variety of situations where other stat’s are genuinely useful for the game content, especially with HoT. More importantly though, people seem to forget (or are oblivious to the fact) that not everyone is a young adult at the peek of their physical reflexes with superb keyboard skills, perfect vision, fully able-bodied, playing on a powerful rig, and living in their parents basement with the time to learn and practice every boss/mob/game mechanic (use of hyperbole there to ram home the point).

The fact is, I know of several players (and no doubt there are many! others out there) that cannot wear zerk gear as they just die too often with it which, understandably, would be very frustrating. For some, its because they are partially blind, some are playing with only 1 hand, others experience difficult cognitive challenges, while others just don’t have the reflexes to make wearing zerk gear “optimal” for them (you cant kill anything if you are always dead).

To summarize, zerk gear is not always the best choice for every pve encounter, nor is it the best or “optimal” choice for every gamer.

I end up preferring viper gear to zerker on almost all my toons.

Silvatar.5379:

… For some, its because they are … playing with only 1 hand…

For the record I am always playing with one hand. Just to ram the point home.

I would be extremely glad if a lot of those players who use zerker without being able to handle it would switch to something different rather than relying on those in more defensive gear to rezz them all the time.

I know, in this forum everybody is pro, so this one does not go out to any of you.

Halvorn.9831:

I would be extremely glad if a lot of those players who use zerker without being able to handle it would switch to something different rather than relying on those in more defensive gear to rezz them all the time.

I know, in this forum everybody is pro, so this one does not go out to any of you.

Totally agree.

Even if you don’t reach the one’s that better switch gear, you for sure reach the one’s that tell them to wear zerk and nothing else I guess that’s even more important.

Dayra.7405:

Halvorn.9831:

I would be extremely glad if a lot of those players who use zerker without being able to handle it would switch to something different rather than relying on those in more defensive gear to rezz them all the time.

I know, in this forum everybody is pro, so this one does not go out to any of you.

Totally agree.

Even if you don’t reach the one’s that better switch gear, you for sure reach the one’s that tell them to wear zerk and nothing else I guess that’s even more important.

Except that gear like PVT gear helps enforce bad play styles. If an attack one shots you in berserker gear, you learn to avoid because you only have one chance. If the same attack doesn’t kill you in PVT you don’t learn the pressure to avoid it. Speaking from experience PVT gear encourages face tanking. Carry bad players with support builds not their own gear.

Because I enjoy using other builds.

What other reason is there to do anything in a game?

I think you learn better, if you survive one mistake, noticing the second to short after the first will kill you

I think this game is not Dark Souls so I want a margin of error that’s why I never go full zerk with professions that haven’t 19k hp or so like war or necro.

Maguuma is full of dead bodies of zerk users…

Jahroots.6791:

Ehh, you’re projecting your own beliefs too much.

Berserker is optimal for a certain play style, and most instanced content but we can’t really say it’s all a player needs. Lots of people run other stats and combinations, for various reasons, and enjoy using them.

This.

There is some use for other combinations, but that’s more for raids. There’s nothing wrong with Zerk combination armor, but there’s more to the game(imo) than just hitting high numbers.

This games including HoT is still a Zerk and Sinister meta clusterkitten. Seriously, I dropped my celestial and knight gear about 6 months ago after playing for 2 years and it made the game so much easier.

In general, you’ll want to go zerk.

In specific…

For power builds, zerk and assassin are in close competition. Sometimes assassin pulls ahead.

For Elementalists, Thieves, and Guardians who have a hard time surviving, Marauder gear is an option. It only does around 10% less damage than zerk, but the extra health adds a much larger safety net for survival.

For Condi builds, it is torn between Viper and Sinister. In general, I go for Viper, but if you start going over the cap for condi duration sinister becomes the better option.

Yes, the optimal way to play the game is to go full damage. When Anet made this game into a “play how you want” action style MMO, this meant that there are no repercussions for going full glass cannon.

Dyroth.5063:

Dayra.7405:

Halvorn.9831:

I would be extremely glad if a lot of those players who use zerker without being able to handle it would switch to something different rather than relying on those in more defensive gear to rezz them all the time.

I know, in this forum everybody is pro, so this one does not go out to any of you.

Totally agree.

Even if you don’t reach the one’s that better switch gear, you for sure reach the one’s that tell them to wear zerk and nothing else I guess that’s even more important.

Except that gear like PVT gear helps enforce bad play styles. If an attack one shots you in berserker gear, you learn to avoid because you only have one chance. If the same attack doesn’t kill you in PVT you don’t learn the pressure to avoid it. Speaking from experience PVT gear encourages face tanking. Carry bad players with support builds not their own gear.

With all due respect, that is simply not true.

For one, not everybody is on a decent enough internet connection to be able to react to every telegraph in time. A lot of down states at Tequila e.g. are due to the fact, that players are hit by the first tick of a poison field before it is displayed to them. You will survive in more defensive gear.

Secondly a lot of mobs in HoT hit hard. That may not be a problem as long as you are roaming solo. But when you’re doing crowded meta-events, you simply cannot evade all incoming damage, since the screen clutter makes it impossible to see it all.

These are only two simple examples why in times it may be better to run around in a more tanky gear. This may not be important to you if you only consider solo roaming or limited group-size instances. But there are ppl in real need for other setups.

I have toons with Sinister, Soldier, Apothecary, Cleric, Knights and now Vipers. All are more fun than my zerker toon. Sure they may not be optimal or meta, but they fit the playstyle I’m looking for out of those toons and I’ve learned to push some of them beyond probably what they are initially capable of on paper due the time I’ve spent on them.

For me personally, enjoyment and variety > than optimisation.

I also don’t raid since I doubt anyone would me inflicting my unique build choices on their teams lol

just consider:

• zealot/zerk for a support build (zealot/cleric for a bit more tankyness and a lot more heals)
• viper/sinister for the main condition mode

You can play a huge if not all parts of this game being glass, but sometimes it is refreshing and relaxing to play something a bit less squishy.

I also have a Minstrel/Cleric Guardian build (upgraded from nomad/cleric) and a trailblazer/rabid Necro terrorreaper, because I can. They are easy mode. and very nice if you do not need to be sharp 100% of the time, or just running with some noobies and just want to tank dmg.

I use Knight gear on my Power Necro. Years ago I tried Berserker gear but it felt uncomfortable to me and it ruined my skill rotation. Knight gear makes me invincible and my skills feel more fluid. I’m a mainoholic with one character but I would never wear Berserker gear on any class. I try my best to ignore elitists by starting my own parties and accepting non-meta players. I met the most fun people that way.

I run Zerker on a couple of character, but not all of them.
I prefer Sentinels on a couple of them.
Going with Wanderer on my ele.
I found that I liked Zerker on certain toons, but in reality, it did not fit the play style for them all.

I would hate to run zerkers on a condition build.

Because it’s an RPG as well as an MMO.

Answer to question: Yes.

Different gear prefixes exist — in addition to the meta in WvW — because different players want different things from the game. If one is an achievement-motivated player, efficiency is going to play a major role in your choices. If, on the other hand, one is an immersion-motivated player, then character concepts will play a major role in choices. That can include being tough, a healer, or whatever.

Currently, my lvl 80 guardian is in full Cleric’s. I play mostly PvE, with the occasional WvW. In PvE when fighting some of the world bosses I’ll see waves of people go down around me, yet I’ll be standing there at 75% health or higher… it makes me feel really, really good. My damage is solid (though obviously it’s not the greatest), but I can take on and outlast mobs that zerker-only builds can’t in their wildest dreams. In WvW I imagine it’s very frustrating to my opponents when even with my low health I’m never one-shotted, heal my damage back really fast, and conditions slide off my back.

Eventually I’ll get bored with this build. My bank is stuffed full of different gear sets for my Guardian. This is not because any given set is bad or ineffective. It’s because in every MMO I play I LOVE to explore builds and strategies within the classes. To me any “meta” is a boring concept. Some people have Alt-aholism… I have Build-aholism.

The different stat sets aren’t there to “confuse new players,” but to allow them to mix and match and find sets/styles that fit their play style. If this game truly had “one build to pwn them all,” I’d leave and find somewhere else to play.

~EW