Guild Wars 2

I predict that WAY more people would alter their build if all they had to do is 2 or 3 clicks and picking the build from a list.

We have to be able to save/load our builds. Changing a few traits, a weapon, a rune is fine but the moment you want to change multiple stuff it becomes a pain in the kitten . What is the result? People play allround specs that are most efficient on average but not in every matchup individually.

I can not understand how such an important feature still does not exist. How is this even hard to develope? I just don’t get it.

Supported.
At very least, make it so each professions key binds remain the same. If I swap quickly pre match, it is a nuisance to have to go into options to change binds from revenant to an engineer for example. Having my key binds set for each of my professions would allow me more time to communicate why I am swapping and for what purpose…that’s assuming I get a team that communicates.

How would this help in the current environment? There’s basically 7 meta builds across 6 professions (revenant can be power or condi). They’re just so much better than everything else.

Exedore.6320:

How would this help in the current environment? There’s basically 7 meta builds across 6 professions (revenant can be power or condi). They’re just so much better than everything else.

It can be better because you can balance an entire game around it.

You tag every meta build for every profession and in every game, matchmaking starts to consider meta builds on both of sides, balancing teams with the right mix sustain/dps.

So it’s not only a division + mmr but your meta build role has a weight in the matchmaking system.

It’s enough easy to identify a meta build, you can let the players to change sigils and maybe 1 trait and 1 utility.

Basically If Your build has the 99% stuff to be classified like a meta build, the system can read it like meta build and gives to to you some weight in the macthmaking system.

Or you can do it more social oriented like a simple meta build list in the build template system, you select it for Your profession and voilá, equip ed and rdy to use. Basically a metabattle ingame version.

I think limiting people to fixed builds would improve overall game play. To be effective at the game you have to not only know how to play your class, but you also have to know the skills of the other classes. I’m all for limiting PvP builds, especially in the lower tiers. Simple rules of math state that certain builds are going to be better. Letting people play bad builds makes things harder on the other 4 people on the team.

The concept of “balance” being every profession can be effective at condition, power, support and bunkering is ignorant. That is too many options for people to process and effectively play well against.

Would be really cool if Anet could tie templates in with their own data tracking. They would be able to see what builds are people using? How successful are they? How many people are using what skills?

That way they might have a number understanding of what is being used.
Oh, only 1 person used ranger spirits in PvP in the last 10 months? Oh, he lost the match he was in 500-0 despite playing with 4 meta classes? We should keep on eye on this!

MarkPhilips.5169:

It can be better because you can balance an entire game around it.

So you basically want templates to turn PvP builds into MOBA characters where they have fixed abilities and you have to choose from a list of pre-defined builds.

Exedore.6320:

MarkPhilips.5169:

It can be better because you can balance an entire game around it.

So you basically want templates to turn PvP builds into MOBA characters where they have fixed abilities and you have to choose from a list of pre-defined builds.

The game works already in this way

There are builds better than others in Spvp. There are builds tested from high level tier players that work for sure.

Playing a no tested random build in a ranked environment is only a issues for you, for your teammates and a great advantage for your enemies. It’s ok testing builds in unranked games, hot join games, etc. but honestly ranked should be always for the best possible competitive environment.

The fact people can run “wrong” builds is a balance issue. Making more control about meta builds and about which build a player can use is only a great advantage for the entire game. Easier to balance the single build and easier to balance a game for the matchmaking. And it’s easier for a player to understand well how to play the build and what’s the right role.

So yes, I think working on a little variables array can create great advantages for balance.

This game started with an incredible amount of variables, when Anet reworked the entire spec system with less variables (with 3 lines and 9 Major traits) was in this direction, trying to semplify the game.

But at the same time they basically lost an entire 3 years balance patch with a total new system + hot, and now it requires new work to find a good balance between meta builds.

I disagree that we need to restrict players to fixed builds.

The problem with current PvP is that a handful of builds are better than everything else. If you go back even just a year, you had many builds which were “meta” for high level play and many more which were competitive. There could be slight variations in them and they were still useful.

Further, few of these builds were decided by ANet. Most were figured out by players testing various combinations of traits and amulets. Without the ability to test and discover new combinations, PvP will stagnate. Variation is what keeps the environment fresh and interesting.

Lastly, this is an MMORPG. Part of that is a large degree of customization. If you restrict that too much, it kills the feel of the game. If you have to play with set abilities in PvP, why not just play a MOBA?

For some classes there are situations where an off meta spec is better depending on te enemy team. For example on druid it can make sense to go paladin instead of mending (with a couple of other trait changes aswell) if you see like 4 direct dmg classes in the enemy team. People will do this now much less likely because it can be quite the effort.

Some specs that might seem too good in the current meta would already be countered by that simple QoL improvement because it makes people adept.

Build template load outs are super important for PvP.
It takes too long to change a build – weapons/traits/sigils/runes/skills which you may modify depending what classes you face on the opposite team.

It makes a high difference between able to swap quickly.
Want to go from Condi Rev to power Rev – there are so many changes to do within 2 mins. Anything that cuts this down to seconds so you can sort strategy out with your team at the start would be good.

Everything in this game would be better with build templates.

I’m so happy the RAID Team believes build templates are super important – let’s hope they start work on them after the third wing is out.

Make it so.