Guild Wars 2

I’m just curious about something. With a game like this where each profession can only use a handful of weapons and those weapon decide your entire play-style, shouldn’t it be where I open the skill book, read the weapon’s screen and what their moves do, then try them out. If they “feel” like a play-style that matches what I like, shouldn’t I be able to then build my character to be just as effective in PvP as any other weapon combo?

The reason I ask is this: I go to streams and I play the game and I find usually there are only 1 or 2 possible builds with very little variation between professions.

For instance, I really like the way axe for necro feels, but it just doesn’t feel viable no matter how I build it.

Is it a design choice because of balance issues to only really have a few viable builds, or is it more a product of a game in its infancy(which will be eventually fixed)

Thanks!

Its an issue of balance. All weapons should be balanced equally, but they arent at all.

Im Too Godlike.5629:

Its an issue of balance. All weapons should be balanced equally, but they arent at all.

I’m sure they have data for what weapons people enter tournies with and which ones are mostly played overall. I hope they take that data and make any weapon that is underplayed more viable.

I do wish they were all balanced equally. I don’t enjoy Hundred Blades being the only thing warriors do, because they think it’s the only thing that’s viable for damage. I wish each weapons play style actually made a difference to what each player would pick, but it doesn’t. Most thieves spam 2. Most warriors depend completely on Hundred Blades, etc. There is almost no variation in PvP games, because everyone is so predictable on what they use. It gets dull, when everyone builds the same, and all play the same.

This might not actually be an issue with the weapons. It’s more the meta. Guardians, for example, have a damage build that’s (theoretically) perfectly viable, but the meta forces them somewhat into bunker roles, so all weapons that help with a defensive playstyle will be overrepresented in PvP.

Sadly this appears to be a recurring problem, GW had (in my opinion) major issues with certain skills and builds never seeing any use, or at least depending on the dominant metagame.

Of couse GW2 is a lot more limited in build variety compared to GW nigh endless possabilities, and here’s hoping Anet doesn’t go the same way as then and intorduce even more classes and skills making balancing even harder.

Still a build needs to be designed to work,shouldn’t expect every patchwork of skills and traits to be viable, but I agree that every weapon set should have at least one viable way to build.
GW2 is still new, let’s hope Anet manages the balancing in time.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I build my classes. I play a bit in PvE to find my favorite weapons, then look at the trait and stat combinations. Unfortunately, the other thing that bothers me is the finite amount of armor stat choices. I find myself building more around what armor is possible rather than what traits matter more for my weapons.