Guild Wars 2

Just pondering , why builds that will involve player v player basically tend to go more for sustain/boons/condi/condi removal (the last two not in current meta so much but were at one point.) And builds that involve fighting mob AI tend to go pure glass cannon?

Both use utility type abilities (not utilities, but utilities like stealth, swiftness, teleport, etc) (in PvE mostly for skips)

So the main difference is players seem to want PvP to be more drawn out and PvE to be over quickly? Or am I missing something? Couldn’t all PvP builds be just as offensive?

Pretty sure most professions follow this trend but most of my experience is with ele. For instance the standard PvE would be 6/6/x/x/x, general PvP/WvW would be x/x/x/6/6 (sustain/boons.)

Just wondering WHY?

The sPvP meta shifts often, it has not always been sustain. It is completely player driven.

Well, you can glasscannon most bosses, because you can predict how they react. You can dodge their few attacks and deal as much damage as possible. In PvE, enemies don’t stay in AoEs, they don’t always use the same attack pattern… tankier guys would just stomp glasscannons. That’s why condis etc. work so much better in PvP, they are “glued” to an enemy and he can’t simply take a step out of it (that’s why condi removal is so important) and so on. It’s much more diverse and so, imo, kinda funnier.

Its simple really. People have brains and will dodge block reflect etc… your big moves in a pure glass cannon build. Also spvp forces you to stand on a point which doesnt usually go well for glass cannon builds. WvW are big zergs smashing into other big zergs so again pure glass cannon doesn’t stand up to well unless you just sitting in the back or side pew pewing.
As for pve the mobs dont have a brain. They have patterns that you learn so that they never doge block reflect etc any of your attacks. You also learn those patterns so you can dodge block reflect etc their attacks so glass cannon builds work best for pve.

In pvp you are facing an opponent with unknown abilities, but based on experience you can build to fight what you seem to encounter most often. That’s why you see defensive builds as well as burst, it can shift but you can see a wider range if you playing lower levels of competition. I like playing in practice often just to see what crazy builds people think up…

In pve you are facing a mob that you can google or within a few minutes know exactly what to expect. Most mobs arn’t powerful enough to have their different abilities noticed anyway. Mobs don’t adapt to your strategy, but you can adapt. With your active defenses it doesn’t make much sense to take any more defense than you need, and the more experienced you are the less you need.

The elementalist example is particularly big because 10k hp is a death sentence when facing fast paced and intelligent opponents, whereas the AI is slow to attack, and can’t see your weak points and exploit them intentionally.

An spvp ele needs sustain to stay on points, cele is incredibly strong. (d/d / bunker traits)
In wvw, you should still be full zerk, cantrips are enough to survive anything. If you run lighting rod / water line you get the best of both worlds, with great damage/cc and team support.
And obviously in pve you’re fighting scripted mobs. Once you learn the fights you’re just trying to maximize dps.

Kind of ironic though isn’t it that 90% of people following the glass cannon dungeon meta DON’T know the fight or when to dodge… so in actuality the situations are far more similar than most want to think :P

(at least my experience when PUGing)

The reason is simple

Firstly, you need somebody to stand on point which means they will need to soak up alot of damage.

Secondly thieves and mesmers pretty much invalidates most of the zerker builds in spvp. Most zerker builds from other classes will be torn to shreds by these two classes because they are the king of the zerker for instant gap closer and near unavoidable damage.

Invulnerability frames.

1. In PvP, someone has to stay on point either to contest it or keep it from being contest. All the aoe will bomb on point. It explains the bruiser/bunker aspect.

2. Pvp players have way less HP and toughness than a standard vet/elite trash mobs in PvE. Mobs when engaged, do not withdraw from the damage pressure. Pvp players when outnumbered will withdraw from the fight, reposition and create a more advantageous fight elsewhere.

3. In pvp, winning fights is as important as keeping points. It explains the superiority of rotations more than mechanical skills. In PvE, your somewhat average play can be carried by the group DPS. Your goal is very simple. Kill the subject and move on to the next.

4. There are glass cannons in pvp. Most popular ones are thieves, mesmer and power rangers. Lesser popular are killshot or greatsword/rampage warrior, static discharge engi, fresh air ele, power necro… even some pure condi builds are pretty glassy like HIGH engi, terrormancer and signet ele. They are 1v1 and plus 1 builds. They aren’t much beneficial to the team in conquest mode if team is stacked with them. On the other hands, they are strong in death match mode like Courtyard – serving the same purpose as in PvE.