Guild Wars 2

I quit 1 year ago because beserker gear was the only good gear in the game. This made 95% of the other gear useless and in turn made 95% of the playable content a waste of time.

No diversity in builds was a huge problem for me too, I mean I’d really like to have builds between melee dps / tanky caster etc etc but nope. Just beserkers.

Anyway have they done anything to balance gear? or should I just not bother with GW2 anymore?

Eh, you probably wouldn’t like it. They buffed condition builds considerably, and the new expansion content is difficult enough that some people are swapping in bits of survival gear here and there, but it’s never going to magically turn in to a trinity game for anyone looking for that. We did get dedicated healers in the new expansion, but they aren’t likely to be needed outside of the new raids. So, if you hated it 2 years ago, I doubt there’s been enough change to really satisfy you now.

Berserker itself was never op, ice bow was, and it did receive a nerf recently.

Bletzkarn.4726:

I quit 1 year ago because beserker gear was the only good gear in the game. This made 95% of the other gear useless and in turn made 95% of the playable content a waste of time.

No diversity in builds was a huge problem for me too, I mean I’d really like to have builds between melee dps / tanky caster etc etc but nope. Just beserkers.

Anyway have they done anything to balance gear? or should I just not bother with GW2 anymore?

Are you asking if the Trinity has suddenly popped up? If so the answer is no. The meta for the old content is still Berserker. But if you don’t like it just don’t run it. Everything else is perfectly viable just not optimal.

Otherwise Conditions are now a thing (I believe Engineer, Ranger, Guardian (could be wrong on this one) and Berserker (the new Elite Spec for Warrior not the gear) are the go to condi classes for their burning). When Raids come out there will probably be some different gear choices as the most optimal but we won’t really know that until it’s out (I believe the team that beat the first boss from the Beta had Celestial in their team?).

Berserker gear is still viable and my personal favorite. No matter how much they increase the difficulty scale I’ll always find a way to survive even in zerk gear. Can I either melt face or I don’t even bother

But to answer your question, the concept is still the same, if you are still not a master of dodges and the evasive abilities your class offers then yes, you will need some survival gear in HoT.

Well there’s a bit of a learning curve when you enter HoT with Berserker gear (a lot of people getting one shotted for a while there XD ). But most people have changed their strategy enough (or just run in large groups). Likely we’ll only see soft trinity emerging in the raids.

There are lots of ways to play besides Berserker’s glass cannon. There always have been. Berserker’s is just one way. Unfortunately, people tend to get fixated on the erroneous concept that there is “one best way” to do any given thing.

Play how you like, mate. If you like Berserker’s, great! If not, great!

I personally find it much more fun to come up with viable builds around my own playstyle and gear them appropriately…sometimes Berserker’s is appropriate…sometimes something else works better…and guess what? They all work fine if you put a bit of thought into how they work and what you’re using them for.

And it’s fun

Don’t get sucked into the groupthink “must have the meta omg the meta is the best” mindset. Play how you like!

@Chou I guess that’s a good point. Collecting all the sets would be a fun way to keep one occupied, there’s just not much incentive to do so.

Raids are ng to force people to change their gear and I am awaiting the complaints on the forums, how Anet is forcing them to play the game a certain way.

nGumball.1283:

Raids are ng to force people to change their gear and I am awaiting the complaints on the forums, how Anet is forcing them to play the game a certain way.

It’ll sound more like “Why is the game not so easy that afking with auto-attack is enough to win every PvE fight?” :D

The stack and burn strategy isn’t viable out in HoT. Anet made sure any formidable enemy does constant knockbacks and AoE. So if you were hoping to be able to throw on zerk gear and stack on a boss, then you will be sorely disappointed.

I’ve always used my wvw gear for pve and I still wait to see anyone complaing about it.

I love my Celestial gear and use it every day. I’m making a Sinister one, too, and surely will make a Wanderer one in the future.

Nausicca.6038:

I’ve always used my wvw gear for pve and I still wait to see anyone complaing about it.

People like to make noise about this sort of thing but there’s really no way to enforce it. I remember when Ascended Amulets came out, there was a big thread where someone was going on about how they’ll auto kick anyone they find out is using a “selfish” utility slot infusion instead of taking the super valuable +5 stats to help their party. Even ignoring how ridiculous the idea is, there’s just no way to know unless someone flat out tells you what they’re wearing.

Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying my free 20 Magic Find and have yet to have anyone call me out for holding back the group.

As for berserk/sinister gear specifically, people really overestimate how valuable those sets are in random pug groups I’d rather my party members run full Soldiers and actually live through the entire fight, dealing more damage overall than these people slap on Berskerkers and think they’re doing “20k DPS” for the 10 seconds they were alive because that’s what a guide said. Turns out there’s a pretty big difference between groups formed through LFG and guild speedruns.

For old content, Berserker is still the meta, however they overhauled conditions, such as removing stacking and making far more viable condition builds, so having conditioners in your party and dungeons and fractals will no longer lower your groups DPS, and sometimes will increase it, leading to less toxicity overall.

For newer content, like the Maguuma Wastes and Magus Falls maps, mobs have alot of crowd control, AoE, group tactics and special attributes (like needing to bust their break bar to disable or kill them). This means that a pure zerk and damage build is actually not 100% effective in these areas. The most effective builds tend to be all-rounders, with alot of CC, movement, stun break and balance of power and conditions, otherwise you may have trouble running solo, because even though you can do good overall some mobs mechanics will give you hell.

Healers are a thing in the expo (all the new healer subclasses in HoT have the same healing potential that only Elementalist has in the core game). They make it alot easier to survive in newer content if you want to stay DPS, me and my SO run through the new maps as support and DPS and it works quite well. Right now healers are just supplemental, they help the group in any fight without a DPS check, but they aren’t required, They will likely be required in upcoming raids , however.

Conditions are more of a thing now thankfully, you can mix & match stats to get what you want now.
Berserker now is like a Nine letter word as elite or elitist is a five or seven letter word if you get my drift. You’d have to be really anal to only require berserker anywhere now.
Not saying it doesn’t exist though, there is old content where as raw dmg might still be a thing.

Nah, Berserkers are kind of weak, along with the rest of Warrior.

…or is that because I’m using Berserker gear on my Berserker when I should be using Sinister? >.>