Guild Wars 2

Video Edition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_-aVm2VkTA

With the Balance patch fast approaching, I try my hand at predicting the future of the meta based on what I already know of the patch notes from the preview shown to us on Saturday.
Without further ado, let me tell you want my crystal ball told me;

No.3 – The Ele remains in the Meta
Eles may be weak but they will remain in the meta for 1 reason and 1 reason only. Their versatility. They can bunker on point, offer support, have great mobility across the map and still prove to be annoying in team fights.

No.2 – The Interrupt Mesmer Returns
Due to the nerf to PU’s Stealth duration, the dreaded mantra mesmer will start to rear its head again. It might get squashed by another build that Helseth decides to play on a whim but, my good money is on Mantras making a comeback.

No.1 – The Condi Meta Cometh
You are not ready for the truth.

Let me know what you think guys! What are your predictions based on what we know and will know?

I predict matchmaking will still be a mess even after the tuesday patch.

Ehh, remember that ele was actually out of the meta for a pretty long time before celestial buffs came. Anything is strong if their numbers are high enough.

Also, I’m not sure about condi meta. There’s a lot of condi, and a lot of condi clear available. If condi comes back, expect to see a lot of shoutbow.

No3
Ele could stay meta, maybe not on D/D fire. There is still Cele Staff, D/D with air/earth magic and scepter is getting buffs, so we may see some more fresh air or cele scepter.

No2
PU will still be strong, however some Mesmer might go for stealthless inspiration shatter builds. Not necessarily the old Mantra Shatter but Mesmers trading stealth for some heals and condi remove is quite interesting.

No1
Condi cancer will still be kept in check by Cele Necros. If Cele Necro gets nerfed too: welcome condi meta.

All hail our new condi necro overlords.

They control the ground, they’re tanky, they can spam 4-6k crits of direct damage AND all conditions in the game, while holding / capping a point and killing 2+ people at a time.

Seriously. There’s a reason this was and still is relevant! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrQQ9BHEstI

Erindriel.2351:

All hail our new condi necro overlords.

They control the ground, they’re tanky, they can spam 4-6k crits of direct damage AND all conditions in the game, while holding / capping a point and killing 2+ people at a time.

Seriously. There’s a reason this was and still is relevant! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrQQ9BHEstI

That video was so funny it brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing.

Erindriel.2351:

All hail our new condi necro overlords.

They control the ground, they’re tanky, they can spam 4-6k crits of direct damage AND all conditions in the game, while holding / capping a point and killing 2+ people at a time.

Seriously. There’s a reason this was and still is relevant! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrQQ9BHEstI

omg so funny, so true.. it’s like beating a dead horse ;(

1. Burn stacking will remain a problem
2. Matchmaking won’t actually be fixed and PUGs will still face premades
3. Get ready to bow down to your druid masters this beta weekend

Hey Ceimash, I agree with points 1/2, and I’d honestly love for 3 to happen (I’m a closeted condi-aids-lover).

About 2: I’m not sure if full on mantra builds would come back (with inspiration and harmonious mantras) but just mantra of distraction on its own could comeback. Most top mesmer players I’ve noticed so far opted to take Domination/Dueling/Chronomancer with GS and either S/T or staff but S/Sh will probably be great now that the block actually… well, blocks more than one attack. They opted to keep Deceptive Evasion and take either the slow or quickness GM, but I think non-duelling chronphantasma builds could be really strong too, especailly for interrupt builds.

Anyway the problem with mantras/inspiration is that the mantra heal becomes a liability in prolonged fights when it goes on cooldown, and that difficult to work around. Not to be a fanboy, but these top players also say that chaos and inspiration aren’t really needed because the f5 shatter lets them pressure the enemy so much that they don’t need to camp stealth or use mantra heals to survive counterpressure.

for point 3, I think condi builds could become a lot more visible, especially on reaper, (in part due to scepter, in part due to cele necro not being as needed for the ele counter post-nerf). I’m tracking my gamewide damage with condi necro builds, now, post-scepter buff, and with reaper to get a good idea of its potential.

On the flipside, I think trooper runes soldier’s reaper will also be a very good and popular build, which is just more passive AoE cleansing that makes condi builds harder to run. Druid cleansing, grace of the land, and scrapper adaptive armor also threaten condi builds a little more than they probably should, especially when I bet that some of those traits were intended for PvE-Raid use.

Then theres defensive condi revenant, which I’m not sure will be as godmode as it was during BWE2, but we’ll have to see how things turn out.

(note: I actually didn’t watch your video yet, but I will tomorrow and I’ll post any other poignant thoughts).

My prediction:

Even though eles will no longer have as much damage, you will still see lots of QQ because they do have high sustain, ignoring that they once again hit like a wet noodle.

Cele S/D will take over D/D b/c it already stacks might like a boss, and is getting even stronger. This is a good thing b/c S/D takes way more skill to play properly than d/d, and a bad s/d ele just gets rekt. People will complain about “all the damage” s/d ele does when they facetank dragon’s tooth and get caught by a 3-5x phoenix + firegrab + air 2 + lightning flash.

BlackBeard.2873:

My prediction:

Even though eles will no longer have as much damage, you will still see lots of QQ because they do have high sustain, ignoring that they once again hit like a wet noodle.

Cele S/D will take over D/D b/c it already stacks might like a boss, and is getting even stronger. This is a good thing b/c S/D takes way more skill to play properly than d/d, and a bad s/d ele just gets rekt. People will complain about “all the damage” s/d ele does when they facetank dragon’s tooth and get caught by a 3-5x phoenix + firegrab + air 2 + lightning flash.

BRING ON THE TEARS

Really stoked to see them buffing a lot of the weak weapons finally. Hopefully, there is more to come for ele scepter.

Addressing the comments on necros health. As a necro, I think there are a few things that need nerfs. First, chill of death is really quite lame. It is the only reason necros have burst, and it completely overshadows focus. Give necros real burst skills that are evadable, and get rid of this cheap BS auto-proc garbage. Same with Plague sending, I want to have to do something to get rid of my conditions. Not rely on a random crit proc that goes off when I don’t want it.

Also, the total amount of DS+Health is obscene, and needs to be taken down. In place of that necros need better LF generation on most of the weapons, and more scaling defense (spectral armor in particular needs to not be as OP in 1vs1, but work better 5v5). Also, the base functionality of DS should be better. Let necros see utils and get healing in shroud. Then consider upping the mobility, or giving necros more vigor, protection, or stab. Finally, necros need better support, Blood Magic is decent, but with no way to grant any boons or clear lots of condis it won’t ever work (maybe with zealots).

I agree with basically everything her’s why.

No.3 – The Ele remains in the Meta
D/D and staff eles even when running celestial provide a great amount of team support with condition cleanses, and decent damage. Though the burn nerf will heavily decrease the AoE damage it will still be in a very good spot. Also alot of people dont realise the vigor nerf is also huge it puts them on par with everyone else. The only true way to fix it is to have healing power scale hard, like conditions, so at low-mind healing power you heal a mediocre amount but if you’re made to heal you heal a large amount.

No.2 – The Interrupt Mesmer Returns
At least it’s not invisible 24/7

No.1 – The Condi Meta Cometh
there needs to be a burn cap at 5 in PvP cause hitting a guardians cleansing fire funny gives instant 9 stacks. Same with engineer and pistol off hand. In high level condition isn’t played nearly as much as people are very good at saving cleanses. However in teams where 2+ condition classes are present no condition removal can save you

Here are my own predictions

No. 1 – Bunker guards drop focus
Shield of Absorption changed to 4s from 1.25s you can move around with the bubble. and Shield of Judgment will now apply 4s of Protection in PvP. Feel my Wrath increased recharge from 30s to kitten . We will probably see half of guards run this the other half invulnerability.

No. 2 – Trap rangers rejoice
with Quickdraw being “fixed” we’ll see alot of double torch fields. Maybe even condition pet based builds. Taunt will still be used a lot but it wont be as OP.

No. 3 – I cant CC this warrior
With 12 seconds of instant stability on a 40 second cooldown from a trait we will see more stance warriors who you can never CC. The rotation of stability will be trait, then Balanced Stance, then rampage, then trait then Balanced stance and by that point everyone looses. Its a trait that requires no skill and therefore deserves a high cooldown.

You guys don’t even…

DRUID!

kittenING DRUID!

Thats the meta.
Thats the future.

This was hilarious though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrQQ9BHEstI

D best.3547:

No. 3 – I cant CC this warrior
With 12 seconds of instant stability on a 40 second cooldown from a trait we will see more stance warriors who you can never CC. The rotation of stability will be trait, then Balanced Stance, then rampage, then trait then Balanced stance and by that point everyone looses. Its a trait that requires no skill and therefore deserves a high cooldown.

your reasoning is ridiculous.
stability can be easily removed.

even with stability, warrior still dies to burst and condition overload, unlike elementalist.

stop making false statements.

TorsoReaper.8530:

Erindriel.2351:

All hail our new condi necro overlords.

They control the ground, they’re tanky, they can spam 4-6k crits of direct damage AND all conditions in the game, while holding / capping a point and killing 2+ people at a time.

Seriously. There’s a reason this was and still is relevant! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrQQ9BHEstI

omg so funny, so true.. it’s like beating a *un*dead horse ;(

FTFY

The patch has dropped now. What do you guys think?

Rifle warrior still not meta!

I can imagine the picturesque meta where the developer would like Elementalists to go considering the Glyphs, Burn changes, and Fire cantrip nerf (and minor scepter buff). Oh and “lessened sustain” due to the Vigour nerf.

And then you have the reality utterly deviant from the developer’s simplistic expectations and full of unintended consequences.

D/D Celestial Water Cantrips is still strong; possibly more so than other Elementalist builds that don’t rely upon Water Cantrips (Soothing Disruption), but do use Renewing Stamina.

D best.3547:

No. 3 – I cant CC this warrior
With 12 seconds of instant stability on a 40 second cooldown from a trait we will see more stance warriors who you can never CC. The rotation of stability will be trait, then Balanced Stance, then rampage, then trait then Balanced stance and by that point everyone looses. Its a trait that requires no skill and therefore deserves a high cooldown.

My necro WISHES it had this much stability….