Guild Wars 2

So I’m going to be honest with you all… I have never even tried a warrior. I main a ranger and a guardian, and I play a necromancer a fair amount too. I felt the need to write this though because people often ask me, “Why don’t you play warrior?” or tell me the classes that I play “Don’t really do anything,” and sometimes I am just kicked from parties because I choose to bring my ranger to a dungeon. And you will all have to trust me when I say that I am not playing fetch with my pets using my bow as a stick when I am running a dungeon. Sometimes from the way people talk you would think you ate a bunch of lead as a child to play anything besides a berserker warrior this is simply not true.
So the question remains why don’t I play a warrior? Why don’t we ALL play berserker warriors? Anet could definitely cut down the size of Guild Wars. There wouldn’t need to be any light or medium armor. They could cut out a ton of weapons, limit the stats and nix most of the runes. No pet or minion AIs to worry about. WvW would certainly be different with zergs just charging strait at each other and using A Hundred Blades on as many enemies as possible. Dungeons would be just charging through and dpsing the boss. If that can’t be done ie: the new TA path no one would run it and perhaps Anet would eventually remove it.
The answer for me is simple: Support. I love supporting the parties I am in. My ranger pulls and kites extremely well. I can drop a healing spring and blast it once myself and if we have a guardian with a hammer it can blasted two more times. I love removing conditions, giving boons and healing my party. All of my toons do these things very well; I almost always have a group heal. These are things that berserker warriors typically don’t do. A majority of the berserker warriors I know run signets, but if you are running banners or shouts, you still don’t have a group heal. Berserker warriors aren’t built for group support.
Group support is the main reason I chose Guild Wars 2 over other MMOs. I like the idea of the party working as a single unit. I like the idea that dungeons can and world events can be something more than a dps race, and I sincerely hope that Anet helps promote and facilitates this. Because if there was more things in the game similar to the new TA dungeon where I can go through with 1 ranger 3 guardians and an elementalist and get through in 45 minutes, but a group that is trying to speed run it with 3 warriors a mesmer and and elementalist can’t make it through I think this question would get asked a whole lot less. Because conditions, blocks, buffs, and stripping boons should never be called useless, and a game that dares to break the holy trinity should be more than a dps race.

“Why don’t you play warrior?”

’cause this picture too awesome.

Berserker warriors were only the go-to class in the PvE meta during the heyday of CoF1. Nowadays, while one warrior is a good addition to a party, multiples bring less efficiency than bringing a mix of professions, including, possibly, a sword ranger.

Because my engineer is far more versatile, and does more damage with grenades at the cost of carpal tunnel.

Because I find it more fun playing a Tank Cleric Warrior rezzing all those Berzerkers which drop dead like flies. :P

IndigoSundown.5419:

Berserker warriors were only the go-to class in the PvE meta during the heyday of CoF1. Nowadays, while one warrior is a good addition to a party, multiples bring less efficiency than bringing a mix of professions, including, possibly, a sword ranger.

Totally true. The only problem is that pugs most of the time are dumb and ignorant, they’d rather bring 5 warriors than even accept one good ranger.

Because eles have so much cooler animations than wars.

Because berzerker guard is cooler.

xsquared.1926:

I prefer playing other classes.

Omg i laugh so kitten the necromancer gif !

I’m not lying when I tell you I had someone seriously suggest I delete my ranger in favor of a warrior. It’s really good to hear from all of you in support for other classes.

I would have quit this game long, long ago if maximizing the speed with which I can roll over easy content was all there was to it.

Play what you like. Ignore the people who tell you otherwise. They didn’t pay for your game.

The fact is, most people who play warriors are bored anyway because everything becomes too easy, and then they expect more challenging content to be made just for them.

I usually tell them to try it on an ele. Then come back and tell me we need harder content. lol

I have to agree. Sure I could play a warrior and just hit things till they die but elementalist offers more variety to my every day life. Which is possible on warriors. Provided you have the right weapon on you at the time.

People play what they like. People also understand when a class is sub-par and undesired like the current state of the Ranger. It’s no coincidence that Ranger won the “What class needs the most work” CDI hands down…

People are stuck in 2012.

Back then when we had zerk warriors and other classes wearing all sorta of random garbage it was only logical to think that warriors were best by default. But apparently you can zerk with any class in pve…

Though a badly played ranger is much worse than a bad warrior though. And that’s where all the stereotypes start.

FLiP.7680:

xsquared.1926:

I prefer playing other classes.

Omg i laugh so kitten the necromancer gif !

+1 I am still laughing at the necro one

I tried playing warrior and was bored of it by level 10. Maybe I just enjoy the pain but I like ranger and necro. I like the playstyles of the casters and the medium armor users. Heavies don’t interest me in the least…sad because they are the most wanted right now /sigh

I prefer playing the fastest and most annoying class in games so whee, Thief. Even though Warrior is faster but oh well. *Anet said they were going to fix that and haven’t o.O)

xsquared.1926:

I prefer playing other classes.

If only Guardian could really dual wield shields.

We don’t ALL want be bored kittenless!

zenleto.6179:

We don’t ALL want be bored kittenless!

If you’re bored on your warrior, perhaps it’s your own fault for not doing anything interesting?

http://www.twitch.tv/purpleishawt/c/3840557
Most people who play on warriors probably don’t melee this guy. Try it. It’s fun as hell, requires fast reflexes, and has high intensity especially with an inept guardian.

http://www.twitch.tv/purpleishawt/c/3840580
Most people who say things like “warriors are boring faceroll classes” or anything of the like are likely having in mind group dungeons. If this isn’t the case for you, then fair enough.Try soloing them. It’s a completely different experience and is much more than just autoattacking with axe mainhand.

@OP
I don’t hate other classes and I have no issue with rangers specifically other than the fact that the vast majority of the ones I’ve encountered were all morons. Realistically, it’s just the idea of people feeling the need to safely range everything from a distance that irritates me. A ranger with a bow is by no means no worse than a mesmer with a greatsword or a guardian using staff for PvE. Sorry you have miserable experiences with pugs but believe it or not so do I, and all I play on is my warrior.

The only class that truly is awful in PvE by comparison to any other class no matter what, is the necromancer. I feel bad for the people that main them… it’s not their fault that their class was designed poorly.

I have two warriors at 80 and another that will be 80 by the end of next week. I don’t need to watch someone’s videos to tell me how to play my characters in a more exciting way. Thanks though.

._. I already do

Purple Miku.7032:

zenleto.6179:

We don’t ALL want be bored kittenless!

If you’re bored on your warrior, perhaps it’s your own fault for not doing anything interesting?

http://www.twitch.tv/purpleishawt/c/3840557
Most people who play on warriors probably don’t melee this guy. Try it. It’s fun as hell, requires fast reflexes, and has high intensity especially with an inept guardian.

http://www.twitch.tv/purpleishawt/c/3840580
Most people who say things like “warriors are boring faceroll classes” or anything of the like are likely having in mind group dungeons. If this isn’t the case for you, then fair enough.Try soloing them. It’s a completely different experience and is much more than just autoattacking with axe mainhand.

@OP
I don’t hate other classes and I have no issue with rangers specifically other than the fact that the vast majority of the ones I’ve encountered were all morons. Realistically, it’s just the idea of people feeling the need to safely range everything from a distance that irritates me. A ranger with a bow is by no means no worse than a mesmer with a greatsword or a guardian using staff for PvE. Sorry you have miserable experiences with pugs but believe it or not so do I, and all I play on is my warrior.

The only class that truly is awful in PvE by comparison to any other class no matter what, is the necromancer. I feel bad for the people that main them… it’s not their fault that their class was designed poorly.

Nope it’s not my fault that I don’t play games strictly for combat. That’s why other people play games.

There are people who are very focused on mechanics and combat. There are people very focused on world exploration and crafting/gathering. They’re not necessarily the same people, and that’s the problem in a nutshell.

I could care less if I can melee a boss. Doing so wouldn’t make my like the game better and it wouldn’t make the profession more fun.

And it would still be harder to melee it on my mesmer.

the answer is simple really.
warrior, guardian, ele, mesmer anything one of the other useless classes can do one of these main classes can do it better.

until a.net decides to make the others either part of the meta or changes the meta nothing will change .

Nage.1520:

And it would still be harder to melee it on my mesmer.

I know right? It’s so unfair they don’t have anything to make it safer.

RemiRome.8495:

Nage.1520:

And it would still be harder to melee it on my mesmer.

I know right? It’s so unfair they don’t have anything to make it safer.

Show Spoiler

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http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Distortion
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blurred_Frenzy
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionary_Riposte
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Diversion
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Temporal_Curtain
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phantasmal_Warden
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magic_Bullet
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Feedback

endless minions to hold aggro for a while

etc

What’s even funnier is there are plenty of dungeons and boss fights where mesmers are probably the ideal class to solo with, yet nope! “warriors OP NERF@@”

According to the latest Knights LS event, we’re being told specifically to focus on DPS builds… in preparation for the feature patch “nerf” to exactly the Zerker build. Wha?

Please, the only reason anyone wants a mesmer is for a few utility skills. Outside of that, we’re just as unwanted as the rest of the classes.

medohgeuh.4650:

Please, the only reason anyone wants a mesmer is for a few utility skills. Outside of that, we’re just as unwanted as the rest of the classes.

It’s warriors who are unwanted in my book. I’ve probably had more wipes to bad warriors than bad rangers.

xsquared.1926:

I prefer playing other classes.

Going to file a ticket because guardians can only equip one shield. This is obviously a bug. Also, we need more boons. Invent a thousand more so I can fill the entire screen with boon icons. Boons give me a special kind of satisfaction.

For the ranger you should have used a Moon Moon image.

I rolled a Warrior once. I was bored senseless.

Warriors are fine if you just want to steamroll through content, but the other classes (even the incredibly weak Elementalist) I find are more fun to play when I want to actually explore places. I stopped doing dungeon runs ages ago because it seems to some elitists, nothing less than a Warrior will do, and all dungeon runs should be considered a second job – at least to carry them through. No, a job is something I do during the day which earns me money and I game at night for fun.

My current main is a Necromancer, but I recently rolled a Mesmer and I’m having a lot of fun with it.

I main a ranger also. Secondary an Ele or my guard. I have yet to get my warrior past lvl 15. I have 8 lvl 80’s 2 eles. I don’t play a warrior well. Never have so I am happy to have options. My ranger is a long bow but switch to sword dagger combo for melee. I don’t use a bear cause I prefer my reef drake or spider.

I do my best to really learn all classes but warrior is the bane of my learning curve… I just… Don’t …..like it.

xsquared.1926:

I prefer playing other classes.

The necro is way too funny ;P

I have the same kind of problem with GW2 warriors that I had with WoW warriors and warriors in most games. The entire class revolves around brute forcing your way through everything. Charging, knocking down, stomping, shouting and swinging around your weapon like a neanderthal while generating rage to do these things even more effectively. How can that be made exciting?!

It’s the kind of class that never required much thinking in any RPG. Not even in the ye olde tabletop ones. Good for both beginner and experienced gamers as it performs reasonably well in unsteady hands and shines when used by an expert. See Lupicus solo and such. Warriors are like Captain America on horse steroid.

Latinkuro.9420:

the answer is simple really.
warrior, guardian, ele, mesmer anything one of the other useless classes can do one of these main classes can do it better.

until a.net decides to make the others either part of the meta or changes the meta nothing will change .

So you need 3 guys to do the job of one engineer?
Healing, condi-cleaning, dps and control. Not even is the engineer the most versatile class in the game, he can easily specify himself for even outperforming any part you perceive as the actual “meta”. And that can be done by many classes, including those you failed to understand

The group I run dungeons and lvl 49 fractals with:
Me, our enginner – group-heal / nades dps (and therefore dps-groupsupport) / control
1 ranger – pet-tank and dps / control
1 ele – dps / additional heal if needed
1 mesmer – dps / control
1 necromancer – condition-mancer

Sometimes one of our group got no time, so we must use the lfg-tool for dungeons (never would I run a fractal with someone who’s not in my ts-channel), and everytime we get a warri or guardian I really feel sorry for them. Yes, it sometimes proved as false prejudice since we found someone who actually can play his class, but often enough we got a complete kitten with us who kisses the ground at nearly every boss (or even sometimes on the way to them). And no, I don’t feel superior to people who just started the game and lack the training, but those who fail constantly while running around with 11k achievement-points and a fency legendary on their back which served no purpose but to polish the ground.

A clear sign for a rally-bot: a warri who joins our group from the lfg-tool and tries to kick our ranger. happened yesterday…

Slowpoke.2749:

For the ranger you should have used a Moon Moon image.

I get the things. I get them good. Also, new nickname for my wolf. Thank you.

When they cut out the trinity, they just removed tank and healer really. All there’s left is DPS.
You want to support your group. Fine, but know that any zerker will grant more dungeon support than any other build ever could. (You don’t need to deal with conditions/defensive boons/heals if your opponents drop before they had the time to use a skill)
It’s not about zerker warriors either. My zerker thief can deal more damage than a warrior, my zerker guard is welcome in every party, my zerker mesmer nukes lupis all day long, my zerker ele makes most fights look trivial. They do all of this, plus still being able to use a couple of support skills when the encounter asks for it. There’s CC on my weapon abilities, and even if I don’t need to use these to deal max dps, if the mobs need to be CC’d, I can CC them just fine.

All classes are DPS/Control/Support all rolled into one. However, when you pick your gear, DPS stats will scale much better than other stats.
For example: you could pick healing gear, have 1500 healing power, and your heals would heal others for about 2.5K-5K each depending on the class. Boon Duration caps at 100%, and all boons have a max duration in time as well. (Swiftness stacks to 2 minutes and no further, for example). However, you now deal about 600-1500 damage per hit with your attacks.
In zerker gear, your heals would heal 1K-3K each depending on the class. Because there are 5 people in your party, your relevant boons will still be stacked to max duration. However, you now deal about 9000-50000 damage per hit with your attacks.

The same counts for other stats:
Toughness can grant you up to 54% damage reduction. However, most bosses will still oneshot you.
Vitality simply beefs up your HP pool. Most bosses will still oneshot you.
These 2 combined, you may survive one big attack you wouldn’t otherwise.
However, know that these attacks tend to have long cooldowns, and you have a dodge bar no matter what your stats are.
The dodge button effectively grants you 1 second of total immunity to damage.
Use that dodge to remove the oneshot ability from the equation, and suddenly toughness and vitality are pointless. (Because dodge will recharge before the boss’ attack)

Condition damage and condition duration has been mutilated by the condition cap per enemy. Your precious superpowered conditions compete with unbuffed ones from other players. If everyone’s condi, there won’t even be enough room on the enemies to put all your conditions!
The build is thus shut down by the game mechanics.

Now let’s see what the zerker nerf, of what we know of it, will do.
We know zerker damage output will be decreased by about 10%.

Zerker will thus deal about 8100-45000 damage per hit.
It’s still not even close compared to the ridiculously poor scaling of other stats.

When they said play what you want, they probably assumed everyone wants to be DPS, and hates tanking or healing. xD

TL;DR: DPS stats scale way better than other stats and the brunt of control/support power is already found on the skills each class can unlock, hence there is no need to pick any stats other than Power/Precision/Critical Damage.

Naetell.3815:

TL;DR: DPS stats scale way better than other stats and the brunt of control/support power is already found on the skills each class can unlock, hence there is no need to pick any stats other than Power/Precision/Critical Damage.

There is if it doesn’t suit your playstyle.

Pretty much everything is viable in GW2, and that’s the beauty of it. Only the player base can be blamed for the fixation on the zerker meta.

medohgeuh.4650:

Naetell.3815:

TL;DR: DPS stats scale way better than other stats and the brunt of control/support power is already found on the skills each class can unlock, hence there is no need to pick any stats other than Power/Precision/Critical Damage.

There is if it doesn’t suit your playstyle.

Pretty much everything is viable in GW2, and that’s the beauty of it. Only the player base can be blamed for the fixation on the zerker meta.

It’s only viable because the game is ridiculously easy.
I’ve solo’d CM P3 on my guard naked and traitless, with just my exotic weapons.
So, having no traits or gear other than some exotic weapons is viable.
However, it’s not a good way to play. You wouldn’t ever recommend anyone to play like that.
It becomes a question of efficiency, and zerker is the more efficient way to play in PvE.

Personally, I’ve played DPS in WoW for years. Then I discovered healing, and I loved my priest to death.
It saddens me too I can’t heal in this game.
But the truth is that the game just wasn’t made to accomodate for all playstyles. It’s made to accomodate just one in its current state.

If you want build variety in GW2, go to PvP. Zerker sucks there, and while it’s far from a great place to be for build variety, it’s infinitely better than the current state of PvE in the game.

Slowpoke.2749:

I have the same kind of problem with GW2 warriors that I had with WoW warriors and warriors in most games. The entire class revolves around brute forcing your way through everything. Charging, knocking down, stomping, shouting and swinging around your weapon like a neanderthal while generating rage to do these things even more effectively. How can that be made exciting?!

It’s the kind of class that never required much thinking in any RPG. Not even in the ye olde tabletop ones. Good for both beginner and experienced gamers as it performs reasonably well in unsteady hands and shines when used by an expert. See Lupicus solo and such. Warriors are like Captain America on horse steroid.

That is exciting – but not for everybody.

How can providing boons and healing allies be exciting? How can helping a downed ally be exciting? I find neither of these of any worth, and if I have to do them I do it just because it is required to make the run go well.

What I like to do is smash things in the face.

Hmm. I play a Berserker Warrior. I also play a non-berserker warrior. And I play two Necromancers, two Engineers, two Elementalists, two Guardians, two Mesmers, two Rangers and two Thieves.

I am having fun with all of them.

Ryan.2758:

Because my engineer is far more versatile, and does more damage with grenades at the cost of carpal tunnel.

Sadly that was true for me, between playing that and an Ele since day 1 (the two
worse for this).

because fast = more time for more profit. Zerk it is. i have a group of friends i play with and we all bring w/e. or we make a good balanced group. CC/Condi/Tanks/Supports/ Dps. etc. We find it more challenging and overall fun to play. We have our speed clear groups to though in case we need to hurry up, knock out the dungeon tourney and continue with w/e we have going on. Just find u a group u can do these things with.

The Holy Advenger.1758:

because fast = more time for more profit. Zerk it is. i have a group of friends i play with and we all bring w/e. or we make a good balanced group. CC/Condi/Tanks/Supports/ Dps. etc. We find it more challenging and overall fun to play. We have our speed clear groups to though in case we need to hurry up, knock out the dungeon tourney and continue with w/e we have going on. Just find u a group u can do these things with.

Zerk equals less profit. I’ll explain.

I play zerk, I make money faster. I get bored faster, I stop playing faster. If I don’t play, I make no money. I make more money playing a character I have fun playing, than a zerker I don’t want to play.

Arantheal.7396:

Latinkuro.9420:

the answer is simple really.
warrior, guardian, ele, mesmer anything one of the other useless classes can do one of these main classes can do it better.

until a.net decides to make the others either part of the meta or changes the meta nothing will change .

So you need 3 guys to do the job of one engineer?
Healing, condi-cleaning, dps and control. Not even is the engineer the most versatile class in the game, he can easily specify himself for even outperforming any part you perceive as the actual “meta”. And that can be done by many classes, including those you failed to understand

The group I run dungeons and lvl 49 fractals with:
Me, our enginner – group-heal / nades dps (and therefore dps-groupsupport) / control
1 ranger – pet-tank and dps / control
1 ele – dps / additional heal if needed
1 mesmer – dps / control
1 necromancer – condition-mancer

Sometimes one of our group got no time, so we must use the lfg-tool for dungeons (never would I run a fractal with someone who’s not in my ts-channel), and everytime we get a warri or guardian I really feel sorry for them. Yes, it sometimes proved as false prejudice since we found someone who actually can play his class, but often enough we got a complete kitten with us who kisses the ground at nearly every boss (or even sometimes on the way to them). And no, I don’t feel superior to people who just started the game and lack the training, but those who fail constantly while running around with 11k achievement-points and a fency legendary on their back which served no purpose but to polish the ground.

A clear sign for a rally-bot: a warri who joins our group from the lfg-tool and tries to kick our ranger. happened yesterday…

The guards and warriors you get probably die because they are designed for killing mobs before their lack of defense becomes a problem. This works in an organized group running meta builds, but not so much in a group like yours. This is why I would never pug with a full zerker anything. And yes, I am sure there are super elite players who can solo on a full zerker, but most people just aren’t that good.

why all berserker warrior ( and other class ) because saddly the pve is only mob with huge pve pool and poor fight strat. ( dodge… )

So, to avoid turn many things ( 95% of the game ) boring, its better to kill stuff fast. so -> berserker.

The game have a poor management of crow control skill, many conditions are not efficient enough to disable ( like in GW1 where interrupt / control curse and condi was excelent ) so, only solution left -> pur DPS.

As long as Anet wont rework MANY aspect of their game gameplay it will NEVER change, whatever the % crit damage nerf with the ferocity.

rabidsmiles.5926:

FLiP.7680:

xsquared.1926:

I prefer playing other classes.

Omg i laugh so kitten the necromancer gif !

+1 I am still laughing at the necro one

I tried playing warrior and was bored of it by level 10. Maybe I just enjoy the pain but I like ranger and necro. I like the playstyles of the casters and the medium armor users. Heavies don’t interest me in the least…sad because they are the most wanted right now /sigh

I think the Engineer is close but they needed to include a water reservoir exploding in that photo to be a bit more accurate. Those two skills seem to be the only ones really worth it in that class.

E Tan.7385:

why all berserker warrior ( and other class ) because saddly the pve is only mob with huge pve pool and poor fight strat. ( dodge… )

So, to avoid turn many things ( 95% of the game ) boring, its better to kill stuff fast. so -> berserker.

The game have a poor management of crow control skill, many conditions are not efficient enough to disable ( like in GW1 where interrupt / control curse and condi was excelent ) so, only solution left -> pur DPS.

As long as Anet wont rework MANY aspect of their game gameplay it will NEVER change, whatever the % crit damage nerf with the ferocity.

I don’t think Ferocity will change anything either. There’s still the weakness of condition damage, the lack of any usefulness in CC, and healing is a total joke so until they improve the rest of those mechanics especially in boss/champion fights the rest will simply be a memory of a time where there was balanced PVE combat and more than 1 role.

We don’t all play them because not everyone finds them fun. Also, other classes bring better damage/support to the table than Warrior.

Ele: More damage, great might stacking and sometimes better fury stacking

Guardian: Can have more damage, great support from boons/reflects/blinds

Thief: Has more single target DPS I believe. Stealth for skips and blind spam

Ranger: Can do equal damage to Warrior I thnk. Has Frost Spirit and Spotter to be like a psuedo Banner of Strength/Discipline

Warrior brings good damage and banners. Banners are the main reason I believe people want Warrior in their group. Warrior’s also got good vuln stacking

tigirius.9014:

E Tan.7385:

why all berserker warrior ( and other class ) because saddly the pve is only mob with huge pve pool and poor fight strat. ( dodge… )

So, to avoid turn many things ( 95% of the game ) boring, its better to kill stuff fast. so -> berserker.

The game have a poor management of crow control skill, many conditions are not efficient enough to disable ( like in GW1 where interrupt / control curse and condi was excelent ) so, only solution left -> pur DPS.

As long as Anet wont rework MANY aspect of their game gameplay it will NEVER change, whatever the % crit damage nerf with the ferocity.

I don’t think Ferocity will change anything either. There’s still the weakness of condition damage, the lack of any usefulness in CC, and healing is a total joke so until they improve the rest of those mechanics especially in boss/champion fights the rest will simply be a memory of a time where there was balanced PVE combat and more than 1 role.

Don’t hold your breath for the PvE efficiency of non-damage stats to improve drastically. Why? Because glass is not considered to be more efficient in either of the game’s PvP modes. While ANet might at some point use different skill effects in PvP vs. PvE, they’re less likely to split the way stats work across modes.

Fact is, the only hope for other builds to be considered desirable in PvE dungeon play is to revamp the way dungeon mobs work. While I am seeing different mechanics on some of the new mobs, how likely is ANet to change existing mobs drastically?

tigirius.9014:

I don’t think Ferocity will change anything either. There’s still the weakness of condition damage, the lack of any usefulness in CC, and healing is a total joke so until they improve the rest of those mechanics especially in boss/champion fights the rest will simply be a memory of a time where there was balanced PVE combat and more than 1 role.

Useless CC. In the meantime, pvp-ers are complaining about condies spam, cc spam and bunker meta.