Guild Wars 2

its been about a year since the topic of revising berserker meta was made and as far as ive seen i havent seen the topic get really anywhere other than 16 pages within said year.
Aside from having punishing AI with specific skillsets in HoT, whats to be done about non expansion content being bulldozed too kitten fast ? What happened to the gw2 BETA AI that would dodge etc?

are we catering to the newer players to only just run whats BEST?! or are we going to still throw the “play how you want and get loved for it” shenanigans ?

Guardians, Warriors, Engineers, and Rangers all had recent condition build options available after the condition rework that are competitive in DPS (albeit, after a certain time threshold) with the berserker meta.

“Play how you want” is not dead. I’ve found that the majority of “Play how you want” players seem to overlook the fact that fast runs are a product of a specific stat-set and play style, and when you choose to 1. Not run the specific stat-set and 2. Choose your own play style, then you forfeit your complaint that you can’t “play how you want” and also “achieve fast runs”. Its honestly the same thing as trying to freeze water at a higher temperature than 32degreesF… There are certain conditions that are required, and when you actively choose to ignore the required conditions, you have no right to complain.

I play how I want every day in berserker gear with other players in berserker gear. Its that simple.

Agreed^^^^^^^^^^

Lithril Ashwalker.6230:

whats to be done about non expansion content being bulldozed too kitten fast ?

Nothing. It is old, broken beyond repair and is abandoned for years because no one cares.

This is surelly to end up in a very constructive and productive thread!

RSLongK.8961:

This is surelly to end up in a very constructive and productive thread!

I’ll get the popcorn!

TheLastNobody.8319:

RSLongK.8961:

This is surelly to end up in a very constructive and productive thread!

I’ll get the popcorn!

Don’t forget your bingo cards.

Before posting what will obviously be an inflammatory topic, please try:

site:forum-en.guildwars2.com meta

The topic has been argued and kewkew’d extensively: Link

This topic always

Lithril Ashwalker.6230:

its been about a year since the topic of revising berserker meta was made and as far as ive seen i havent seen the topic get really anywhere other than 16 pages within said year.
Aside from having punishing AI with specific skillsets in HoT, whats to be done about non expansion content being bulldozed too kitten fast ? What happened to the gw2 BETA AI that would dodge etc?

are we catering to the newer players to only just run whats BEST?! or are we going to still throw the “play how you want and get loved for it” shenanigans ?

As has been said in all of the various threads on the topic: the issue isn’t zerker’s, it’s that we’ve figured out the optimum way to handle all fights, due to a combination of static encounters (so we can easily predict what will happen) and traditional foe AI (which makes them easy to counter). As long as that’s true, there will always be a meta (it just happens to emphasize power). ANet can tone down power or might, can beef up conditions and control, and zerker will still be faster in both casual and speedclearing situations…until they change the encounters and foe AI.

The silverlining is wide on this one: despite zerker being “faster”, there are tons of ways to be simply “fast enough.”

tl;dr the issue isn’t zerker meta; it’s the encounters. And it’s not that big an issue, since there are plenty of sufficiently successful builds already.

Lithril Ashwalker.6230:

its been about a year since the topic of revising berserker meta was made and as far as ive seen i havent seen the topic get really anywhere other than 16 pages within said year.
Aside from having punishing AI with specific skillsets in HoT, whats to be done about non expansion content being bulldozed too kitten fast ? What happened to the gw2 BETA AI that would dodge etc?

are we catering to the newer players to only just run whats BEST?! or are we going to still throw the “play how you want and get loved for it” shenanigans ?

Dungeons are officially abandoned. Fractal and Raids are the instanced content where Anet will focus their efforts.

They continuously balanced the game over the years. Maybe not fast enough IMO, but still. The big spec update did a great job at that with profession like Ranger and Engineer being boosted, and the DPS range between different profession being reduced a bit. And of course condition build started to be a thing for some profession. Overall, there is a lot more build that are view a good in PvE.

That said, a lot of thing can still be done like balancing Burn vs Bleeding to allow profession that focus more on bleeding condition to be more on part with Direct damage or Burning Condition build.

But in the end, we’ll need to see what will they do with Fractal and Raids. Let’s keep in mind that the numbers of people able to full meta/melee everything in fractal 50 is not that high. A lot of people use alternative build, range or use exploit against some of the hardest bosses in fractal 50 (Mosman, Archdiviner, etc). With Fractal 100 and Raids that are suppose to be even harder. I pretty confident that alternative build will become more popular.

To be clear. I’m not saying that Zerker meta won’t be the most efficient way to play the game. But it will be harder to master those (expecially during the 6 months/1 year of the new content), and that less people will be able to play it efficiently.

If the majority of people would be better with a build with more defensive capability, then more people will advocate them on the forum and slowly the mind set of the community will change over time to be more accepting of other build that are maybe less efficient, but allow the majority of players to complete the new content more comfortably.

Sparks The Rescue.5043:

“Play how you want” is not dead. I’ve found that the majority of “Play how you want” players seem to overlook the fact that fast runs are a product of a specific stat-set and play style, and when you choose to 1. Not run the specific stat-set and 2. Choose your own play style, then you forfeit your complaint that you can’t “play how you want” and also “achieve fast runs”. Its honestly the same thing as trying to freeze water at a higher temperature than 32degreesF… There are certain conditions that are required, and when you actively choose to ignore the required conditions, you have no right to complain.

Valid point, assuming its the same person complaining about playing how they want while also wanting to match the speed of zerker meta runs. This isn’t always the case, and they may have a valid complaint when it isn’t. The problem is when the developer insists on telling players they can “play how they want,” when the reality of the game environment (mechanics, community, etc.) funnels players into a very narrow selection of builds. It would be more appropriate for the developer to say, “you can play how you want, but expect to catch flak from the jaded, efficiency-obsessed community that tends to grow up around repetitive carrot-on-a-stick games because eventually doing the same thing for the millionth time gets dull and you just want it to be over as soon as possible so you can receive your shiny for the day.” The latter doesn’t have quite the same ring to it though, I suppose.

Personally, I play how I want and when I find myself only playing for the rewards (as opposed to genuinely having fun with the gameplay) I take a break. But to each his own.

As always, here’s the solution to the “problem”. Every build, gear set, and whatever is viable in this game.

Ayrilana.1396:

As always, here’s the solution to the “problem”. Every build, gear set, and whatever is viable in this game.

Your picture is perfect and its why I say anyone who doesn’t follow that reasoning is a troll. There is hundreds of people on each side that will join your type of run if you start the group. In this game there is never any reason to force your playstyle on someone else. If you do, then you are a troll and should not be surprised when you get kicked from a group and you also shouldn’t be running to forums to cry about said kicking.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

Ayrilana.1396:

As always, here’s the solution to the “problem”. Every build, gear set, and whatever is viable in this game.

Your picture is perfect and its why I say anyone who doesn’t follow that reasoning is a troll. There is hundreds of people on each side that will join your type of run if you start the group. In this game there is never any reason to force your playstyle on someone else. If you do, then you are a troll and should not be surprised when you get kicked from a group and you also shouldn’t be running to forums to cry about said kicking.

100% True. The only point I concede to the ’’other’’ side is that the LFG isn’t that good. They could improve it a lot more to make it easier. How many people on both side didn’t read the LFG and joined to impose their view. And TBH I think that ’’our’’ (speed run/meta) side do it more often.

A better LFG would help a lot, even if it wound’t fix everything because we can’t fix people who join wrong group or group that doesn’t put the right description.

I’m sorry, but if you haven’t realized the meta zerk is and has been dead, then you haven’t played long enough, or played enough difficult content. The only reason it was ever atop the list was it is direct immediate damage, and generally single target. The fact is more and more content requires organizing mobs, killing multiple mobs, and not single target pure damage. I can take a condi necro to fractals and wipe out every last elemental in the shaman fractal in a couple seconds. Tell me what zerk warrior does that. Not even a zerk ele can compare to what a necro can do in situations. A pet is even valuable when used properly, making rangers position, at least those who can play one properly, much higher.

Every class can hold its merit in virtually any situation when used properly. Following these meta zerk builds only creates horrible players because they’re not learning the class or mechanics, they’re learning how to deal the most damage the fastest, and that is it. They’re not learning what the, or any class, is truly capable of.

Ranger can be good but the thing is they’ll randomly do a knockback that takes away damage sync. The lightning, trickshot, or dancing dagger bounce are compromised while there’s one less enemy in the damage lava field or arrow barrage.

Necros are good but they have a very high skillcap so if you’re an average player they’re subpar but if you’re good they’re excellent.

Filosophi.7251:

I’m sorry, but if you haven’t realized the meta zerk is and has been dead, then you haven’t played long enough, or played enough difficult content. The only reason it was ever atop the list was it is direct immediate damage, and generally single target. The fact is more and more content requires organizing mobs, killing multiple mobs, and not single target pure damage. I can take a condi necro to fractals and wipe out every last elemental in the shaman fractal in a couple seconds. Tell me what zerk warrior does that. Not even a zerk ele can compare to what a necro can do in situations. A pet is even valuable when used properly, making rangers position, at least those who can play one properly, much higher.

Every class can hold its merit in virtually any situation when used properly. Following these meta zerk builds only creates horrible players because they’re not learning the class or mechanics, they’re learning how to deal the most damage the fastest, and that is it. They’re not learning what the, or any class, is truly capable of.

omg. https://www.youtube.com/user/Iamoneandiamlegion

go crazy