To start things off I would like to explain that I am posting this rant to try and get some attention to the fact that builds in Guild Wars 2 end up being linear. The fact of the matter is that in the Guild Wars 2 meta-game berserker builds are almost always strictly better if not always. This fact really bothers me as a player who likes to make odd builds and likes looking at different party structures to conquer big PvE challenges. The original word count of this rant was also about 1,600 words so I will try to spare you all and shorten it. disclaimer I wasn’t entirely sure where to post this so I hope this is even in the right forum ;~; disclaimer
So what is the problem?
The main problem that I see in Guild Wars 2 is the extremely evident presence of the DPS/berserker meta. I am sure this has been discussed many times although I just wanted to give my take on a solution.
Main problems in the meta
Classes are too self sufficient in their ability to support themselves and their party members to allow for there to actually be an official support role. Powerful skills that can be slapped onto a DPS build without repercussion include things like, “banner of discipline”, and the rangers “frost spirit”. The fact of the matter is that these skills and many others can simply be put into a build without the need to worry about it affecting the core of the build.
So how do we fix it?
One of the big things that I noticed could easily be added to Guild Wars 2 is a level system for skills. If skills had scaling depending on how many skill points you put into it you could make players really decide whether they want to have themselves in a role of support or a role of DPS. This leveling system for skills could apply to all skill types (depending on how lazy GW2’s dev team is), including what weapon skills you want to be focusing on, to what utility skills, and even the passive traits might have an interesting twist on them if it included levels. Let’s go back to the example of the “banner of discipline” problem. For a warrior, with the new system implemented, if he only had a set amount of skill points (determined by his/her level cap, not by how many times s/he has overleveled) they would have to make a decision about whether or not they want to spec their points into “banner of discipline” and take a support role, or spec it into something more important like “signet of rage” to take a more DPS oriented role. From a weapons skill perspective the player could have the opportunity to choose between leveling a CC oriented weapon skill or a DPS one, or even level up “serpent strike” to max level for that one short sword condition damage ranger(self cry).
In conclusion/TL;DR
I feel like there can be so much more depth in character building that could be present in GW2. By adding more selection to the player for their build aside from picking 1 healing skill, 3 utility skills, and 1 elite (because you can’t even choose your weapon skills). You could also add the skill level system to really make players decide about their role in a party. There are many other things I would suggest to be implemented although I feel like this was one of the major things on the list to really start adding build variation to GW2 and make it overall more fun =).
If anyone has any questions about specific examples or problems it was all in my original 1,600 word shpeal in a word document and I would be more than happy to go over a “before and after” situation involving the current system and what I think would work better.