Guild Wars 2

Having run out of stuff to do, I don’t actually spend that much time playing the game – besides cutting down 4 trees in Kryta, viewing the vista above the owl shrine in Hoelbrak and buying 100 badges of honor worth of junk so I can discard it.

That said, I occasionally grace the citadel of flame (P1) or will be spotted trekking across the Silverwastes (searching for the elusive “maguuma waste” tagged tree).

In theses odd excursions of social proximity, I have been seeing a lot of odd buffs and graphical effects. I’ve not seen a “No Necro” tag in ages and while waiting for the explosives expert in CoF P1, I’m suddenly finding myself to be the only warrior in the village – which is great as I can then just drop both the flags without needing to converse with anyone.

I’m not arguing whether or not the builds I’m seeing are good, I am saying though that the sample of players I’ve seen seem to be donning greater build variety.

Have you lot been seeing greater diversity in what other players have been using post-patch or have I just spent too much time alone with my clockwork sprocket node in the home instance?

It has been one week after a major patch that totally redesigned builds; you will of course see variety. The meta is still in flux and players are trying new things. Give it time and you will see some stronger builds prevail, till then enjoy the fact that everyone isn’t just wearing zerkers.

I am seeing a lot of engi’s now using trait lines that I used to use before this patch hit who didn’t previously simply because they were not very “zerk friendly”. I am meaning of course the lines that gave toughness or vit.

With the removal of stats from the trait lines this certainly does open up a lot more build options for people. Yet reducing the traits from 6 to 3 per tier and removing the option to use lower tier traits in the higher slots may offset that a bit. So I can certainly understand the people who are saying this is giving less options, it’s a bit of both in my opinion.

So based on what I just said I would assume it would be the same for other classes

I am now fearing that my old build that was unique to me may soon become the or a “Meta” and this does not please me lol. I liked being an individual who played differently to everyone else. Will our individuality or identity soon be based solely on our skins if too many ppl stick with “metas” and follow everyone else?

I’m seeing a lot of people trying to copy other people’s builds instead of testing and creating ones themselves

lool makes me sad

Paulytnz.7619:

I am seeing a lot of engi’s now using trait lines that I used to use before this patch hit who didn’t previously simply because they were not very “zerk friendly”. I am meaning of course the lines that gave toughness or vit.

With the removal of stats from the trait lines this certainly does open up a lot more build options for people. Yet reducing the traits from 6 to 3 per tier and removing the option to use lower tier traits in the higher slots may offset that a bit. So I can certainly understand the people who are saying this is giving less options, it’s a bit of both in my opinion.

So based on what I just said I would assume it would be the same for other classes

I am now fearing that my old build that was unique to me may soon become the or a “Meta” and this does not please me lol. I liked being an individual who played differently to everyone else. Will our individuality or identity soon be based solely on our skins if too many ppl stick with “metas” and follow everyone else?

The overall trait system still needs some improvement, but its been a great start so far. I think a big hitching point is still in the fact that the traits still heavily define certain things by Weapon, when it should be more toward weapon traits or the Skill type. Especially when it comes to cool downs.

This may not work for all classes, but certain ones could benefit by focusing on skill type, which between 2 traits should give cool down across the entire weapon. It allows the skill type to recycle faster, taking advantage of the accompanying trait across one or both of your weapons.

For instance, pre-patch there was a Engie Trait that gave cool down bonus to all “Elixir skills”. This applied to the 4 elixir utilities, but also 2 skills in the Elixir gun kit. A similar idea could be implemented for weapons skills that may, or may not, cross with utility categories. Another example is Guardian Torch skills becoming a pair of consecrations skills. You may even be able to classify them by their Field or Finisher types.

I have no idea what builds people are running. A couple people mentioned trying out rampager gear in dungeons, but most LFG posting is still for zerk.

Does seem like more people are trying glassier builds in PvP though.