Guild Wars 2

I personally liked the meta during summer 2014 the most (when hambow/bunker guard were meta). There was a lot more to gain from actively reacting to things and less of this passive nonsense. Only things that needed to change were turrets (can receive condi and crits) and a slight reduction on fire/air sigils (which we’ve had since then).

Every meta before they removed power scaling from transforms.

Lich Wells was the most fun and rewarding thing ever to play.

Ah, I remember having a lot of fun on zerker staff ele before that nerf haha

Release.

It was the golden age of the thief. Before the nerfpocalype and the resulting fallout buried the class for ages to come.

Those nerfs. So hard. So many. So long. So sad.

I did like the one right after the powercreep where they transferred trait’s stats…
was a glassier and quicker paced meta than many others we’ve seen and I quite liked it. You really needed to stay on the tip of your toes at all time.
Quick, fun, and nerve wracking, the perfect meta for me.

It went downhill after shoutbow came in. I liked the bunker guard with thief+mesmer meta, and I like engi more than hambow, but the switch from hambow to cele engi resulted in the realisation that with 2 cele already, you can switch a bunker guard for a third cele, be it ele or shoutbow. It wasn’t a terrible meta - certainly better than the current one - but I prefer clearly defined roles, strengths and weaknesses, and the all-round nature of cele prevents that, especially when more than half the team is running it.

Best meta was the zerker meta shortly after launch IMHO.

Ranger Spike meta.

Best meta : soon after dhuumfire and lyssa runes got nerfed!

I liked the offguard meta. At least it was the most exciting meta to watch.

Summer 2014 was really fun. Had a great time playing s/d thief.

Other than that I actually really enjoyed the Spring 2015 meta before the June 23rd trait change, especially at the point in Spring before vamp runes became really popular.

Summer/Winter 2014 was pretty fun.

This is probably an unpopular opinion but I actually enjoyed the June 2015 meta as well – right after they added in basic specializations – despite the complaints about d/d celes.

Early July 2015 was quite fun – not because of the balance (the balance was horrible) but because of how fast-paced everything was.

any meta where you could 1 hit the majority of meta builds using a power build was a good meta

Dual warrior (not shoutbow) meta, right before something happened that turned everyone into cele d/d ele and shoutbow

I enjoyed pre specialisations most. just those few months before they came out. cele engi and shout warrior were dominating and I was having a great time. feel like it was support warriors golden age, you could rock crusader’s amulet and be a small God.

The best days were when you could laugh at meta c/p’ers and make your own build to destroy them.

I liked zerker meta back in the day… All classes were viable atleast.

Two ages of gw2. Pre celestial and post celestial. Pre celestial took alot of skill and organisation to do well in general. Post celestial the build diversity went away and everyone just played a jack of all trades spec which could hold a point, and attack a point. Team roles like condi, bunker, dps and back point holder went away and it became a cluster.

Also celestial marked the biggest transition in players. Alot of people quit and alot of previously bad people worked their way up with the aid of celestial amulet.

Basicalky celesital amulet ruined this game completely.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Two ages of gw2. Pre celestial and post celestial. Pre celestial took alot of skill and organisation to do well in general. Post celestial the build diversity went away and everyone just played a jack of all trades spec which could hold a point, and attack a point. Team roles like condi, bunker, dps and back point holder went away and it became a cluster.

Also celestial marked the biggest transition in players. Alot of people quit and alot of previously bad people worked their way up with the aid of celestial amulet.

Basicalky celesital amulet ruined this game completely.

I don’t think this is as true as you think it is. Without celestial, all the bunker mesmers would just run sentinels or soldier and all the tempests would likely run cleric/crusader, which would be an even worse bunker meta than we currently are in.

Random Weird Guy.3528:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Two ages of gw2. Pre celestial and post celestial. Pre celestial took alot of skill and organisation to do well in general. Post celestial the build diversity went away and everyone just played a jack of all trades spec which could hold a point, and attack a point. Team roles like condi, bunker, dps and back point holder went away and it became a cluster.

Also celestial marked the biggest transition in players. Alot of people quit and alot of previously bad people worked their way up with the aid of celestial amulet.

Basicalky celesital amulet ruined this game completely.

I don’t think this is as true as you think it is. Without celestial, all the bunker mesmers would just run sentinels or soldier and all the tempests would likely run cleric/crusader, which would be an even worse bunker meta than we currently are in.

I don’t think what you say it’ true either, without celestial…what celestial currently keeps at bay would have get nerfed anyway; that means all professions not using celestial : necro/thief etc etc etc

My favourite meta was before they screwed up the trait system.

The previous trait system seemed well designed and thought of. The new system felt like it was done by a different group of game designers who didn’t understand some of the class mechanics.

The professions that suffered the most from this change were thieves, warriors and engies. However, thieves and engies got a small buff from the expac that made slightly more useful.

Launch Zerker meta and the meta before Dhuumfire was introduced. At that time every class had its niche…

Zerker meta for sure.

It was closer to being the most balanced.. it was the reason most player’s thought this game had the potetal to go from “Good” to “Great” now we would be lucky to get that back to “average”

I also agree with pimsley, the trait changed where fine for other spec’s but pretty much 80% of thiefs used 4 lines. i wouldn’t use sleight of hand before that change now i’m pretty much stuck taking it. and honestly the only reason i take that passive crap is to reduce the steal recharge time which they increased that patch..

Started really getting into spvp around fall 2014. Meta for warrior was still hambow, but would soon switch to shoutbow. Can’t really speak too much about that meta since I was still learning.

The celestial meta that dominated much of my time in pvp wasn’t really too bad. It may have been annoying to fight d/d eles and shoutbows, but they were nowhere near as bad as today’s bunkers. During this meta, all classes were viable. Sure you didn’t see rangers in tournaments and only one guy played necro, but for most of us queuing up, every class had a place. I really wish pvp today had the balance of this meta.

The meta after the specialization patch but before the expansion was also fine.

Best meta was right around the Dhuumfire nerf up till Anet overbuffed Warrior.

Pimsley.3681:

My favourite meta was before they screwed up the trait system.

The previous trait system seemed well designed and thought of. The new system felt like it was done by a different group of game designers who didn’t understand some of the class mechanics.

The professions that suffered the most from this change were thieves, warriors and engies. However, thieves and engies got a small buff from the expac that made slightly more useful.

It must of been that the original devs moved on after launch. The original trait and skill system was well thought out and balanced. The key was you had to give up something to gain something, which made for interesting and fun gameplay. If you wanted to go bunker then you did no damage. If you wanted to go condi you did no power damage. If you wanted to go dps you did no condi damage and lacked sustain.

I think it was probably the case that anet lost their experienced devs. And the inexperienced ones were left behind with no direction and control. Kind of like a kid in a candy store they made changes they thought were “cool”. The result has been that each update makes the game worse in pvp and takes them further and further from their original vision

Game design isnt easy. It takes skill and experience.

to be completely honest, the current meta. It definitely has it’s problems, but it’s the only time I can recall where I can play the builds I want the way I want to without feeling like my build is holding me back.

before celestial ele/shoutbow/engis, when things like counterplay/ risk vs reward existed

Tbh I haven’t paid any attention to the meta and just played whatever I felt like until recently (I didn’t understand what makes a good build or anything so I just picked random weapons and trait lines that I though looked good). But now I do try to play good builds and pay attention to the meta, I quite like the current one- I love playing celestial bunker tempest and marauder engineer. I like being able to not die all the time if I make a slight mistake which is why I like the bunker meta.
However I really enjoyed it when MM necro was a thing, I just played full zerker max damage and no one could kill me because my minions would stop them. That made me feel like a great player even though I was actually pretty terrible, lol.

I like the last two meta’s, the one before the june 23 patch and the june 23 patch. I liked those the best. not perfect, but not terrible either. they were no op classes. U can argue dagger/dagger was op but’s that it. U only had mediocore aka average and below average. with average not bieng bad per se. this however changed when hot came out. And Tsar bomba’s and tanks were handed out like candy around the corner.

A-net could have worked from june 23 patch if they didn’t want to go the old trait system. U’d better keep that balance. But now the differences in classes are made bigger. with thief and warrior bieng at the bottom of the barrel. while beforehand they could actually do something kinda.

they will Always be gaps but it wasn’t as extreme, unfortunately they widend.

Best meta for me was the launch Zerker meta and the meta before Dhuumfire was introduced. Those were the days, I liked the old trait system too (you can mix trait & every trait point has a +50 on a specific stat)

When Celestial meta came, it went a lil bit downhill. Then came Pre HoT, (new ugly trait system, removed the + stats with a lot of changes and trait placement change that put a big hurt on some profession) Now, post HoT, cancer. Cancer everywhere.

I hope anet is paying attention to this thread because not a single player has listed HoT meta as their favourite. I would go as far as to say that it’s the worst meta yet.

Seigfried.5938:

I hope anet is paying attention to this thread because not a single player has listed HoT meta as their favourite. I would go as far as to say that it’s the worst meta yet.

It’s not just an issue of balance, it’s also the fact that everything is so slow paced now (much less fun) and it’s all about spamming stuff rather than actually timing things.

roamzero.9486:

Best meta was right around the Dhuumfire nerf up till Anet overbuffed Warrior.

Wasn’t that the petting zoo meta?

+1, I sincerely miss the HamBow/Support Guard meta alot.

I miss playing my p/s condi rabid engi aswel…

THIS META SUCKS

Versuvious.2568:

Best meta for me was the launch Zerker meta and the meta before Dhuumfire was introduced. Those were the days, I liked the old trait system too (you can mix trait & every trait point has a +50 on a specific stat)

When Celestial meta came, it went a lil bit downhill. Then came Pre HoT, (new ugly trait system, removed the + stats with a lot of changes and trait placement change that put a big hurt on some profession) Now, post HoT, cancer. Cancer everywhere.

Cele meta was indeed the time where it went downhill with PvP..
And now its broken and toxic; rewarding bad play because you dont play the bunker, bunker plays you.

Every time they change something, why?! Because they play to, and can’t handle pressure, like pure dps, and they bunker themselves, oh and ad some healing to, powerfull healing, like druid and ele, they never die in good hands, can solo 3vs1 for long time, so yeah, sooo cool, now they can play their game. I will not! 2 idiotic elementalist ( 1 is tempest, other meta) and they never die, literally, you need 4-5 ppl to get them! Kitten this, I hate this game now, will be happy to play other MMO games in future!