Guild Wars 2

Oops, I broke the forums >.<

Spooksie.4930:

Novuake.2691:

The medium and light armor types actually have better access to blast finisher that can give a lot of things, from more dps to vigor.

Which professions have more blast finishers? Elementalists? I think Thieves have one? Mesmers one? Not sure about Engineers because I haven’t really taken a look at those or Rangers for that matter. Too many doohickies and I hate pets. I’ve never played in a game where AI pathing wasn’t an issue with pets.

Novuake.2691:

So at the end of the day, all classes are equally viable for PvE content.

What about other types of content? The reason I ask is because one of the commanders in WvW on my home server “strongly” encouraged me to main one of those three classes if I wanted to continue to participate. When I say strongly, I mean he discouraged me completely from participating further.

That commander is an idiot. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I tend to main an engie in WvW and i have 2 different builds for that. My zerg runner that is super tanky and can punch into a group of atackers and slow them down/make them chase me or my roamer that flips camps and takes down other roamers. Both ways of playing the same toon that are both useful in WvW in their own way. One helps the group in large group battles and the other helps throw the enemy off balance by being a pain while stealing valuable PPT right before the tick. There are many strategies for WvW in particular and if that commander wants everyone to play a specific meta then they are not seeing the forest for the trees.

Thanks everyone for your replies. It’s given me a lot to think about.

That said, there were a lot of comments about the meta and how it’s not always great, it’s just the common denominator accepted by the community? Would you recommend avoiding places like metabattle.com and finding my own builds instead?

Any suggestions on sources for builds and profession guides that are pertinent to the current client build?

Spooksie.4930:

Thanks everyone for your replies. It’s given me a lot to think about.

That said, there were a lot of comments about the meta and how it’s not always great, it’s just the common denominator accepted by the community? Would you recommend avoiding places like metabattle.com and finding my own builds instead?

Any suggestions on sources for builds and profession guides that are pertinent to the current client build?

There are a lot of people that have an unjustified hate for anything Meta. Meta is what is objectively best, it simply is, those people don’t want to accept that and prefer their creativity. But, instead of simply enjoying themselves and doing whatever they want to, they feel the need to badmouth meta any chance they could get.

So, no, Metabattle.com is a great resource.

That said, even if meta is objectively best, don’t chain yourself to it, feel free to deviate and have fun here and there, try new things, do whatever you want. The one thing I’d say though is if you see a group in LFG for dungeons asking for Meta, and you’re not running the Meta, don’t join it. Other than that, just have fun, use metabattle.com as a solid guideline and have fun.

Spooksie.4930:

Thanks everyone for your replies. It’s given me a lot to think about.

That said, there were a lot of comments about the meta and how it’s not always great, it’s just the common denominator accepted by the community? Would you recommend avoiding places like metabattle.com and finding my own builds instead?

Any suggestions on sources for builds and profession guides that are pertinent to the current client build?

Well I think if you understand how GW2 works and your goal is not to be hipster of Tyria and play bad build just to play bad build…. you will eventually make something similar to what you can find on metabattle with slight differences maybe in runes, maybe in skills and maybe even in traits here and there but the basic structure of your build will be pretty much same.

This game has only DPS role so your choices are fairly limited. You will either build pure DPS or DPS/support. When you rule out trash traits, worthless skills and pointless weapons… there is not that much to choose from.

Thaddeus.4891:

GuzziHero.2467:

There is a soft trinity but its more like an octernary.

Guardian: healer
Warrior: flexibility
Thief: single-target damage
Engineer: AOE damage/support
Ranger: ranged weapons
Elementalist: DPS
Mesmer: distraction
Necro: conditions

My dream of dreams would be an 8 man dungeon where the party can only include one of each class.

Gonna fix it for you

Guardian: damage mitigation (healing really, please)
Warrior: damage buff
Thief: single-target damage + stealth
Engineer: Jack-of-all trades, master of none (except vulnerability)
Ranger: A warrior with less buff, but more dmg (certainly not range )
Elementalist: DPS
Mesmer: utilities
Necro : Whatever, who care in PvE (and that make me sad)

Only apply in PvE.

Gonna add for you

Guardian: damage mitigation (blinds/aegis/stability/condiremoval (purging flames) and DPS
Warrior: banners, might, speed through banner, and DPS, some vulnerability (150 power for party)
Thief: single-target damage + stealth
Engineer: Jack-of-all trades, master of none (except vulnerability)
Ranger: opening vulnerability (LB might not be a melee weapons, but rapid fire as opened does provide 20 vulnerability with opening strikes, spotter (150 precision for party) S/* or GS as clos combat. (free buff / condition of choice from pet.)
Elementalist: AOE DPS , Might, AOE heal, Conjured weapon, AOE blind
Mesmer: utilities (Portal? nah!, try Null field, Feedback and Timewarp, emergency SHORT invisibility)
Necro : AOE blind, boonstrip, some vulnerability (, transfusion)
(Zealot (Stf D/F) AoE wells & marks transfusion healer/ protector. 3/0/5/6/0 ?)

Spooksie.4930:

Thanks everyone for your replies. It’s given me a lot to think about.

That said, there were a lot of comments about the meta and how it’s not always great, it’s just the common denominator accepted by the community? Would you recommend avoiding places like metabattle.com and finding my own builds instead?

Any suggestions on sources for builds and profession guides that are pertinent to the current client build?

Different players play differently. There are a couple of extremes such as min-maxers and people who don’t even know what a build is (opposite sides of the spectrum). Most of us are somewhere in between.

I personally don’t min/max. I don’t care if a dungeon takes me ten minutes or fifteen. It’s completely irrelevant to me. That’s because I don’t pug dungeons. I run dungeons with friends and guildies, and we’re on mumble laughing and joking and having a good time. Why do I need five minutes less of a good time.

That doesn’t mean I’ll just throw anything together though. I still want to help the team, even if it’s not the most efficient way to help the team. So if I know a certain battle would be easier with reflects, I bring a reflect skill with me (on my guardian or mesmer). If I know that condition removal is required, I make sure that I have that. If I’m playing my ranger, I spec so I buff peoples’ damage and heal and remove conditions AOE.

But I don’t like lose my mind if I’m not using the rune that will give me more damage than I have now, because I like the speed buff better the rest of the time. I won’t carry multiple suits of armor and switch them out depending on where I go. I’m just not interested in playing that way. It would ruin the game for me.

No one can tell you what kind of player you are. Either you buy into the meta, or you don’t. Me, I don’t. By choice. But I try to stay at least relevant. In other words, I try to find a balance between what I enjoy and what works best.