Guild Wars 2

Hey guys
This past days I’ve been wondering “If I want to improve in PvP, I should run metas”

So the question I have is: Am I doomed in PvP if I want to improve my rating and my skill?
This might seem odd but I ask this simple because all the playstyles I’ve enjoyed are away from the metas (except one) and can get easily countered which are Meditation Guardian (I feel like I played this one much better before than now, Idk I tend to screw up a bit with it), GS Warrior (If I really want to PvP with this one I’m allways prepered to either receive some hate, to suck really bad, or do really great because team work I guess) and D/P Thief (this one is in the meta but I play in EU and enconter a lot of Thief in matches and I also know more than 1 Thief is kinda bad)

So can anyone answer me this? Is there any hope for me? Should I just quit PvP and bond for the metas if I want to improve?

Or you just need to wait for the meta to shift so a build you like becomes viable, but what I noticed with myself is when I was inexperienced I liked bad builds lol once I got some experience the builds I started using become closer to “meta”

GS Warrior is never making it to meta at this pace. ANet nerfed GS for some reason when the weapon was never part of the meta in the first place … Meditation Guardian might become if the change MI to a teleport, but even then it might not …

Thief seems like the most reliable option right now, but sometimes I get tired of it out of nowhere, and in order to improve with the time I have I feel like I have to focus on one

The meta does shift. The builds that people call meta and use most often are in that position because they’re the best counters to other common builds. I really like GS warrior too. I love it, in fact. It gets rekt hard in PvP. It does well in WvW (roaming) though! If you want to improve your rank, I doubt GS warrior will help you with that right now, but nothing is stopping you from taking it into unranked or hotjoin. As long as you have fun, right? Or try to love the PvP cheesemeta and keep playing GS warrior/medi guard non-competitively or in WvW. A time may come when that setup is optimal. To quote Professor Zinga, “The future is mutable! Go with the flow!”

I could have sworn I saw a gs warrior or two in the recent go gw2 cup thingy

Improving in PvP is only a matter of doing the right thing at the right time, and you can improve your reflexes no matter your build.

Don’t let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t play: I always come up with my own builds, and I often manage to counter a lot of players who are using the “meta” builds.

Sure, some builds aren’t exactly optimal (like a healing-oriented thief), but you really should just play what you have the most fun playing. Tons of competitive players go as far as exploiting bugs to ensure they always win, and that’s the last kind of person you want to be.

I know right you wouldn’t want to be one of those players lightning whipping for an extra 241 hp every minute or so.

I think meditation guard is definitely viable especially in EU where teams aren’t stacking engis and eles as much as they can

Rangelost.4857:

Improving in PvP is only a matter of doing the right thing at the right time, and you can improve your reflexes no matter your build.

Don’t let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t play: I always come up with my own builds, and I often manage to counter a lot of players who are using the “meta” builds.

Sure, some builds aren’t exactly optimal (like a healing-oriented thief), but you really should just play what you have the most fun playing. Tons of competitive players go as far as exploiting bugs to ensure they always win, and that’s the last kind of person you want to be.

/clap

its also a good idea to try and understand why those builds are apart of the meta (strengths/weaknesses) and that will help you to not only play those builds better but create ones that fit your own style.

The way I improved in PvP is by playing and mastering the mechanics of every class. If you understand them their strengths and weaknesses, you can beat them. Granted some classes have hard counters, but if you understand your opponents class better than they do, you’ll never lose a fight.

Meta builds are basically just the best builds to run for a specific class. It doesn’t mean you HAVE to play that build, or you’ll forever suck at the game. They are designed to be the most efficient with the least amount of counters and weaknesses.

For example: If you want to run a Dagger/Dagger Thief with 66002 and a Carrion Amulet with a Rune of the Monk – You can do that! You won’t be dealing nearly as much damage as someone with the proper build, but you can do it!

I recommend looking at the meta builds, and then basing your build around what they have. That’s how I got my Thief build, my Mesmer build, and my Ele build. All 3 of which are my main classes. I don’t play “Meta”, though my builds heavily resemble that of a meta build.

Just tune it to your playstyle. If you don’t know your playstyle, go fight the NPC’s or the golems. 99% of builds were created through trial and error, and knowing what your class SHOULD do.

Best of luck

Thanks for all the suggestions
I don’t really feel a need to make my own builds, I just after playing and playing the classes and spec that I enjoy I can’t improve my Win/Lose ratio and some 1v1 I tend to strugle, specially with Thief and GS Warrior, with Meditation Guardian not so much. Funny enough I think the most row of wins and loses I got them with GS Warrior (Win a bunch in a row, lose a bunch in a row :/)

From all these 3 I know that the one I enjoy the most is GS Warrior, it’s the one that requires most skill because it can be countered so easy, but I lose the mobility and I lose the GS style off the Warrior, a bit more than with my Guardian :/

What could I really do with GS Warrior one of the most “useless” specs according to the comunity?