Guild Wars 2

I mean that seriously. No matter what changes come build diversity will be whittled down to a few select builds on each class. It really isn’t that complex and the more I think about “balance” the more I realize there isn’t much point in having many different builds. Players will play what suits them best and for the majority those builds will be the ones with the best results.

Many complain (including myself) about the no risk meta, but hasn’t it always been the low risk meta? Players play classes that they general know they wont go down on easily or that they can burst and escape. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is how many builds can do it now cross class.

Even if they were to nerf the usual suspects I would imagine in a few weeks we would see the same complaints just with different classes. Whining would ensue and many months later we would see a big balance patch where some classes come out great others not so much. A month after that someone will design a build have it leaked or share it and it will become the new meta for one of those classes and the pattern repeats itself.

Players of considerable skill may play builds off the beaten path, however the vast majority for the sake of winning and efficiency will play builds closer to their class meta.

Since the pattern repeats itself and players will generally do what is best for themselves or their team I think aiming for “build diversity” is pointless. As you add in builds you phase out other ones or the builds that do get added in aren’t as good as the current ones and simply do not get used.

Just a thought.

You typed out my opinion on diversity.
+1 for you

Well, before they demolished Sword, Thieves were 50/50 on using S/D Acrobat vs D/P Trickery…

really the only build diversity you should be considering is which condition meta you should be playing. Power builds are dead.

I don’t think the goal so much is to see diversity in effect, as much as it is to have the capability to utilize a diverse set of options to use.

In a very general sense, if every utility was equally as powerful and useful, and the game was balanced purely around risk/reward (high risk builds, high rewards, harder to play. Low risk builds, low reward, easier to play), then ideally, diversity has been achieved because every build would be functional around the baseline for balance.

Now, of course there would still be builds that don’t get used, but that would be mostly because of a player established metagame than it would be an issue of builds that a class has access to outperforming it’s other accessible options.

A prime example of such an issue is rangers Spirit Build. It can do everything that rangers traps can do, but also has better survival capabilities and team support, making traps an option that just doesn’t get picked anymore because that setup is outclassed in every way.

Basically, the goal of “diversity” is to eliminate apex predator build scenarios while ensuring that a class is still a viable competitive option. Apex predator builds and meta builds are not the same thing by the way. You eliminate Apex Predator builds by balancing a class against itself, making sure that everything is equally competitive, and establishing that class around the baseline for balance.

Ideally, the metagame should then only be determined by player perception, with builds being more common because they are better in the situation they are in, versus where we are at currently, where there are builds that are just clearly better for classes than anything else available for them to run.

Build diversity comes with balanced and useful traits/skills and that is what I think ANet should focus on. It will promote player experimentation, less cookie-cutter builds, and make it more fun. There will always be a certain build or 2 optimal for top tier play, but if there’s another build that’s 5-10% less effective but is the desired playstyle for someone like myself, I’d gladly take that. Not to mention someone playing a build they actually enjoy can mean they play the game longer, and may even master it enough to contend with the current “top build.”

I absolutely hated vanilla WoW when there were cookie builds across the board and anything straying from that were just terrible. Big reason was crappy talents and weak skills. GW2 is much better in that regard but are still lots of traits/utilities that need adjustment (IE ele’s fire tree). Having a standard build also doesn’t really help promote experimentation – I always saw posts in WoW asking for the cookie cutter build and there were just no discussion on alternative playstyles or strategy. That makes pvp stale and frustrating when your class isn’t the FotM anymore.

At this point in gw2 life cycle it’s more about balancing the builds rather than build diversity. If Anet decided to change up the meta and promote different builds and play styles they would be back at 0 in regards to the “balance”. I really don’t see this happening any time soon.
Sorry for being so negative.