Guild Wars 2

I just need to vent. I have grouped with many of my friends in this game who traits/specs very glass-cannonish with utility skills that provide little to no effect on teammates. I have these kinds of builds when I solo/roam of course this is acceptable, but when we start doing dungeons and stuff I feel very irked by the fact that they don’t have a more team oriented build. And when I say something about it they just respond, oh we’re casual players we don’t feel like changing our specs constantly. Which PLEASE Anet, bring back our saving build feature please!

Just to put an example out there. Say it is a trait/skill that increases damage for all allies. Maybe this is something small compared to a utility/signet that increases damage for the player singularly. But when it affects ALL allies it is still 5 times the effect, which equals more damage output as a team!

even something as simple as healing skills, I see players that would rather use their solo heal as opposed to team heal. This just frustrates me as a player that always looks out for teammates! There is no “designated” healer in this game, it just simply doesn’t work trying to save everybody running around like headless chickens.

thankfully Anet has removed magic find from gear stats, because this is another piece of stat that I feel enables these selfish players. What is the point of having awesome gear if you are going to do dungeons for the most part with your magic find gear???

Warning: the following post may seem elitist.

I can see where you’re coming from, but it’s really a matter of extent. Just as I do not believe players should force other players to play full zerker warriors for their own purposes, I do not believe anyone should have a say in what builds players must bring, whether those builds are full glass or support.

I will say I believe people should change around utilities when the situation calls, given that it’s extremely easy. For a guardian, it takes only two clicks to swap a signet out for Wall of Reflection, which helps massively in projectile-heavy situations and can save a lot of stress, even if the player in question is not traited for consecrations. It always confuses me when guardians don’t use it because they want to play “their way.”

The same goes for mesmers and Feedback, which again takes only two clicks to swap out. However, while traited focus is extremely nice against ranged enemies, I won’t demand that shatter/any build that doesn’t have 20 Inspiration mesmers go out and spend silver and time changing their entire trait setup just to suit me, an arbitrary stranger, for one run.

As an ele, I can bring a build that stacks tons of might and fury on a party while putting out lots of damage, at the cost of making myself extremely glassy and party-reliant. I run it only with people I know or in multi-path PUG runs where the other members have shown themselves to be competent. As much as I like the build, the blunt fact is that many randoms I run with will be ranging at 1200 and missing out on the stacks, or taking dirt naps because they stood in red circles, leaving me to either rez them (very hard as glass, especially when the downed person doesn’t understand the concept of rallying) or try to solo everything down. In those cases, I bring a balanced, tankier, more self-centered build instead, so I know I can survive rub-rezzing or suddenly having to solo three times the aggro I normally do.

Also, in some cases, the self-centered option is just… the better option. Take guardian’s slot 6 heals. Healing Breeze is very weak, has a relatively long cooldown, and won’t save someone who’s lousy at avoiding damage. Signet of Resolve, however, is an extremely powerful burst heal that also happens to purge conditions every 10 seconds. As a sylvari ele, I could use the racial healing skill that plants a regeneration turret, but this seed breaks in a hit in dungeons and has a much longer cooldown for the heal than Ether Renewal, which heals a generous amount and removes 8 conditions on a short cooldown, possibly saving me from taking a dirt nap and inconveniencing the rest of my party.

tl;dr I can understand your frustration, but realize that some PUGers have reasons for running more self-reliant builds, and it’s kinda wishy-washy to demand that someone change their whole setup for a single run.

Falunel.7645:

Warning: the following post may seem elitist.

Actually it’s just the opposite of elitist. Switching weapons sets or slot skills for team/dungeon is a lot less elitist than insisting on a specific trait load out or armor/weapon upgrades and type (re Berserker).

Behellagh.1468:

Falunel.7645:

Warning: the following post may seem elitist.

Actually it’s just the opposite of elitist. Switching weapons sets or slot skills for team/dungeon is a lot less elitist than insisting on a specific trait load out or armor/weapon upgrades and type (re Berserker).

Exactly my thought, I am frustrated but not to the point of making other players change things that are troublesome to do like re-traiting or having a new armor set. Just the basic utility swap or major trait swap. The devs made this is swappable without re-traiting, why not take advantage of it.

I’ve done Dungoens with people who don’t understand team play.
That doesn’t mean they are selfish, just means they are ignorant and need to be taught about the run and how to work together.

This is why I only do runs with friends lol…

In group plays:
You need to coordinate ((Control)) with your teammates while ((Supporting)) each other and contributing ((Damage)) in some way.

In Solo Play:
You need to mentain your Own ((Control)) and ((Support)) yourself when you need to while dealing ((Damage)).

It’s very similiar to solo but Damage/Control/Support are Weapons/Utility skill mechanics which is why it’s important to learn how your skills work to know how to benefit in solo and group plays together…

Then comes Traits to build and enhance character of playstyle.

Problem I have noticed is people don’t really read their skills or traits.
They kinda just button spam thinking whatever skills not on cooldown should be pressed, there for, you end up playing with players who you might think are “Selfish” when really, in the end, I notice “Ignorance” of not “knowing” which can be taught.