Guild Wars 2

Greetings to the Community!

Would like to share my experience with GW2 PvP so far, ask for guidance in some aspects, hopefully starting a good thread of helpful dialogue. One of the main reasons I joined GW2 was because sPvP is leveled in terms of gear, a simple concept in terms of basic fairplay that is strangely absent in so many games of the genre. I came in before HoTh, did not play for a year or so, and started sPvP a month ago after leveling up a Ranger.

From what I have experienced in this first month, GW2 PvP is extremely hard to grasp for a new player. I have previous experience with MMORPG’s and their PvP, got the basic awareness on what is needed to play it on a good level, and still I am finding myself climbing a very steep mountain.

As a player, I have been running a DPS Ranger build that provides me with some space and mobility to be learning the basic specific stuff. My muscle memory for keys is fairly established, and I’d say I can hold my own with players of similar experience level. However, I am having considerable problems, mainly with the following aspects:
» Too much stuff is happening. The number of meaningful ability effects filling the gameplay at some given moments is overwhelming for a new player, and if you do not know what they mean you can hardly survive for even two seconds.
» Knowing how other classes work is decisive. Since there are many variations to how a class can by configured, the long term accumulation of experience is completely decisive as a factor. Iow, inexperience in how the other classes work and what they do makes it virtually impossible to make any kind of basic stand in the presence of those who do know it.

Those who gained their experience gradually, earning it as the game aged, might not recognize this level of difficulty. However, this represents an almost unsurpassable barrier to new players, one that I suspect very few will have the patience to cross, because being a punching bag in a chaotic and hostile environment is simply neither a pleasant nor a viable way to learn. The matchmaking design could improve this situation, by only putting together players of similar levels of experience, but I suspect the queue times could dangerously suffer with it. The other way to improve it is by decreasing the global level of complexity: skill can still be plenty of a factor without being so heavy of a factor. Some core elite players may dislike it, because their advantage comes from grasping that complexity, but I believe everybody knows what happens to a game and to a Community when there is no basic space for new players to grow and learn.

Coming from all this, a question to the other players… From what I have observed, to reach a good level of skill in GW2 PvP I need to play all the classes, so that I can somehow be able to spot their casting animations and be prepared to deal with their specific abilities (such as reflecting damage for example, something I know it exists, but, after a month of dedication and general research on the subject of PvP, is still completely beyond my awareness during a match). So, considering the amount of classes and abilities involved, I should be looking at something like at least a year of dedication to understand the basics. The question is: am I missing something?

Constructive answers and participation appreciated in advance.

This problem is only gonna get worse with Anet reducing the CD on so many abilities, instead of increasing their power. Passive procs also come to mind, since new players have absolutely no way of knowing which enemy procced that passive.
They actually tried to make game more casual by introducing passive procs and lower CDs, but it seems that concept has backfired. Unless I understand the whole thing wrongly.
Edit: Remembered one more thing. The unranked queue is terrible at matchmaking, it sometimes puts me with my main Ele (some decent amount of hours on it) with some F2P players. Wut?

It’s even more depressing when good PvP players go to play WvW and think they’re clever killing clueless PvE players with godlike knowledge of the mechanics combined with fast fingers (or “skill” as they like to call it).

well, its an mmo. you cant expect to master the controls after a little play time.

This is why new players are leaving Guildwars 2. New players should die but not in 2 seconds. I often come against new players and use simple combos most veteran players would know to avoid to take them down exceptionally quickly.

However, this is far from the problem. Many specs I play are Immortal to moderately experienced players. To a new player I can often ignore them to go for objective maybe even killing them in the process.

A good example of perma evade condition thief. Yes 100% up time of evades exists and I often am able to roll my self though a battle at mid and all the way to the enemy lord. I would ask the balance team to nerf thief evades but they can’t until the ridiculous amount of sustain if fixed for all classes, especially ranger and elementalist, so new players have a chance to at least kill a player they outplay.

People in this game talk about skill/ no skill builds etc all the time.

There is a few things this game does that others do not. Playing in GW2 PvP is alot like basketball. You have to know where your team mates are/ if they are in winnable matchups/ are other players rotating to the right spots/ defensive and offensive rotations and then off course there is personal skill level.

For your own personal skill level there is 1 vs 1 rooms in PvP and the guild hall arena. I have taken many people into our guild hall arena simply because there is no own else and this is basically its only use. You can spend hrs running threw different builds from different classes practicing the 1 vs and 2 vs 2 situations. Looking for the things you need to avoid.

I agree 100% with the clutter: mesmer clones, DH traps, ele over loads, necros minions and marks. Listening to players characters yell out shouts helps but i find it a bit much.

So to answer your question, do you have a good guild? My guild consists of players who mostly play with all the classes with 1-2 people who main thief/necro. This allows a basic question such as reflect on mesmer, where does it come from?

To which someone will reply, its a trait skill on manipulation skill uses. Then all you need to do is figure out which skills they are by looking underneath there name icon while in battle in PvP.

Yes, it will take you a year to actually get good.
However it will not take you a year to be able to play the game or win the game.

I’d say your main problem is playing a dps ranger. This simply doesnt work in todays meta.
There are active and reactive classes. The bunker druid is an active one. You just rotate your own skills to gain a good uptime of protection and regeneration, use healing whenever you are hurt, cleanse any condi, swap and attack pets and utilize your evades for max uptime.
This is relatively easy and you will probably never get destroyed before you can help it.
A reactive class, for example thief has to pay much more attention to the opponent, evade every key attack skill, interrupt the heals, stealth and attack. This is usually harder and requires you to know your opponents tells exactly. If you miss a single skill to dodge, you suffer the sudden death you described.

Now dps ranger is neither. Your rotation is not meaningful enough to make you an active class whilst you dont have the tools at hand to be reactive.
Basically all you have are your damage skills. Its like playing a rev without glint. Or a thief without dodges and stealth.
I actually cant imagine a scenario where a dps ranger would not be a freekill.
All classes have the sustain or the mobility to avoid your burst and every damage dealer has the damage potential to tear your defenseless body from the battlefield in seconds.
You can not play a dps class without the active defenses, passive defenses or heals of what we used to call bunkers. Thats the sad truth. The only ones who try are thieves, and even they have a comparably insane amount of evades and mostly avoid fair fights.
Metabattle lists power survival as ‘good’ which is appearently a synonym for:
-You dont own HoT
-This used to be good but is now horribly outdated
-One trick pony
-Actually useless but at least not a meta build
-Good to suprise noobs but easy to counter

Seventh Angel.4879:

» Too much stuff is happening. The number of meaningful ability effects filling the gameplay at some given moments is overwhelming for a new player,

oh this isnt a new player issue. gw2 is a clusterkitten spamfest, and it’s only been getting WORSE as theyve added more conditions, boons and overall junk on the screen. it’s a common MMO pvp problem – it’s not designed to be a pvp game from the ground up. and it’s not designed by people who understand pvp.

this is coming from someone with over 3k hours in top mmr spvp. you will realize the same sooner or later. everyone does.

mistsim.2748:

Seventh Angel.4879:

» Too much stuff is happening. The number of meaningful ability effects filling the gameplay at some given moments is overwhelming for a new player,

oh this isnt a new player issue. gw2 is a clusterkitten spamfest, and it’s only been getting WORSE as theyve added more conditions, boons and overall junk on the screen. it’s a common MMO pvp problem – it’s not designed to be a pvp game from the ground up. and it’s not designed by people who understand pvp.

this is coming from someone with over 3k hours in top mmr spvp. you will realize the same sooner or later. everyone does.

This is why I keep saying league of legends is my go to for pvp. People think graphics and fighting mechanics make GW2 so superior but I argue that league has one thing GW2 doesn’t (this comparison is for the improvement of GW2). League has distinct CD that you can blow and have nothing left to do besides a.a. League also has limitations to prevent skill spamming clutter. It also depends on reaction time to win trades. It also has more active balance. GW2 is far superior in every aspect except these. Until the balance team fixes these weaknesses their game will not be considered a serious esport by a vast community of players. The best players on esports these days desire mechanical skill which takes practice not skill spamming.

I have a few problems with PvP. If I kill someone I feel really bad. Sometimes I don’t even want to do it, but I don’t want to make my team angry. The decisions I make tear me up on the inside and is the cause of many sleepless nights. If someone kills me, I get so mad I try to find out their IP and home address. At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to get better at PvP.

Generally speaking, I find dueling to be the best way to improve, at least for a solo player. You can find duel servers pretty easily in the custom arenas, and there are almost always some people there running some of the more popular builds. It’s not really necessary to make one of every profession (though it’s not a bad idea, either) when you can just duel people repeatedly to learn what their builds do and improve your familiarity with the mechanics at the same time. Ultimately there aren’t really any shortcuts though, just the accumulation of experience.

Torqiseknite.1380:

Generally speaking, I find dueling to be the best way to improve, at least for a solo player. You can find duel servers pretty easily in the custom arenas, and there are almost always some people there running some of the more popular builds. It’s not really necessary to make one of every profession (though it’s not a bad idea, either) when you can just duel people repeatedly to learn what their builds do and improve your familiarity with the mechanics at the same time. Ultimately there aren’t really any shortcuts though, just the accumulation of experience.

What kind of 1vs1 servers exacatly? King of the Hill or is there something different? I’ve only tried KotH ones and the same thing always happens:

• Wait 5-10 minutes for my turn to fight
• Die in 5-20 seconds to someone who is obviously used to doing 1vs1
• Give up and go back to (un)ranked

Fun times.

eXeD.9738:

Torqiseknite.1380:

Generally speaking, I find dueling to be the best way to improve, at least for a solo player. You can find duel servers pretty easily in the custom arenas, and there are almost always some people there running some of the more popular builds. It’s not really necessary to make one of every profession (though it’s not a bad idea, either) when you can just duel people repeatedly to learn what their builds do and improve your familiarity with the mechanics at the same time. Ultimately there aren’t really any shortcuts though, just the accumulation of experience.

What kind of 1vs1 servers exacatly? King of the Hill or is there something different? I’ve only tried KotH ones and the same thing always happens:

• Wait 5-10 minutes for my turn to fight
• Die in 5-20 seconds to someone who is obviously used to doing 1vs1
• Give up and go back to (un)ranked

Fun times.

There are some servers exclusively intended for 1v1s. I am playing on EU and we have a server named “1v1 – The Great Arena” (without caps). People on the server spar with each other. Haven’t found any other server like that tho.

Tomiyou.3790:

There are some servers exclusively intended for 1v1s. I am playing on EU and we have a server named “1v1 – The Great Arena” (without caps). People on the server spar with each other. Haven’t found any other server like that tho.

I’ll try it out tomorrow if it’s not empty then!

How “newbe” friendly is it? I’m not actually a newbe, I’m just complete kitten.

Srry to tell you but it is only going to get worse. Devs have not managed to have a decent season since at the very least the expansion. Damage Spikes are MASSIVE in this game, Too much kitten happens at the same time and the visual ques are lacking to say the LEAST.
There IS a reason pvp is next to dead in this game, and much of it boils down to what you experienced.

You should use a combination of PvP and WvW to get up to par. I know a lot of ppl here will flame me for saying WvW but it’s just another Avenue for you to use to get better at the game.

Either way keep practicing and you’ll get there

You can totally be successful as a core ranger. I run a zerker build with great sword and longbow. Pets work well to control in 1v1. You have enough damage to put people down fast, you just have to watch your positioning. Search and rescue is still good for team fight.

Asrat.2645:

Yes, it will take you a year to actually get good.
However it will not take you a year to be able to play the game or win the game.

I’d say your main problem is playing a dps ranger. This simply doesnt work in todays meta.
There are active and reactive classes. The bunker druid is an active one. You just rotate your own skills to gain a good uptime of protection and regeneration, use healing whenever you are hurt, cleanse any condi, swap and attack pets and utilize your evades for max uptime.
This is relatively easy and you will probably never get destroyed before you can help it.
A reactive class, for example thief has to pay much more attention to the opponent, evade every key attack skill, interrupt the heals, stealth and attack. This is usually harder and requires you to know your opponents tells exactly. If you miss a single skill to dodge, you suffer the sudden death you described.

Now dps ranger is neither. Your rotation is not meaningful enough to make you an active class whilst you dont have the tools at hand to be reactive.
Basically all you have are your damage skills. Its like playing a rev without glint. Or a thief without dodges and stealth.
I actually cant imagine a scenario where a dps ranger would not be a freekill.
All classes have the sustain or the mobility to avoid your burst and every damage dealer has the damage potential to tear your defenseless body from the battlefield in seconds.
You can not play a dps class without the active defenses, passive defenses or heals of what we used to call bunkers. Thats the sad truth. The only ones who try are thieves, and even they have a comparably insane amount of evades and mostly avoid fair fights.
Metabattle lists power survival as ‘good’ which is appearently a synonym for:
-You dont own HoT
-This used to be good but is now horribly outdated
-One trick pony
-Actually useless but at least not a meta build
-Good to suprise noobs but easy to counter

Faux Play.6104:

You can totally be successful as a core ranger. I run a zerker build with great sword and longbow. Pets work well to control in 1v1. You have enough damage to put people down fast, you just have to watch your positioning. Search and rescue is still good for team fight.

Yes. And you can also be successful as fresh air ele or sa thief. Or power necro. But in reality you wont.
There might be some builds you can realistically fight, but basically it comes down to staying outside of teamfights and praying to not be focussed.
Oh and SnR was never your strongest tool. But without the sustain and the healing power of the druid and now with lower range requiring you to do the ress in the hot area every decent team will cleave you to shreds.

As soon as your opposing team has enough battlefield awareness to pick up the free kill at the edge of combat or to use covering terrain approaching you, its over.

Over a duration of 30 seconds a bunker druid easily has 25k effective health more than a power survival. Probably much more, maybe aroud 35k. And better cleanses.
And people can still kill the bunker, thus its not really suprising if you get torn apart on the pewpew.

Let me just add, mastering the art of druid bunkering/healing takes a LOT of practice, it’s not something you can learn easily or quickly like some might suggest. Also you will get focused a lot if people think you’re keeping your teammates alive. I’d just go with keeping my distance and using a long bow with lots of self sustain skills, and make sure you use your pet skills to make them target what you are trying to kill.

" From what I have observed, to reach a good level of skill in GW2 PvP I need to play all the classes, so that I can somehow be able to spot their casting animations and be prepared to deal with their specific abilities "

You got it right. Now the only thing that remains is to asnwer one question for yourself – Is it worth it? For me it isnt. If Anet wants to establish GW2 PVP as a competitive esport they need to take these steps asap and continue from there:

1 – create a separate pve and pvp build in regard of all class abilities
2 – have soloQ vs soloQ and premade vs premade, not mix and match
3 – do their best to balance the classes for the pvp build ( pve is way more forgiving )

Until then pvp will be more of a hot mess than the actual hot

Seventh Angel.4879:

Greetings to the Community!

Would like to share my experience with GW2 PvP so far, ask for guidance in some aspects, hopefully starting a good thread of helpful dialogue. One of the main reasons I joined GW2 was because sPvP is leveled in terms of gear, a simple concept in terms of basic fairplay that is strangely absent in so many games of the genre. I came in before HoTh, did not play for a year or so, and started sPvP a month ago after leveling up a Ranger.

From what I have experienced in this first month, GW2 PvP is extremely hard to grasp for a new player. I have previous experience with MMORPG’s and their PvP, got the basic awareness on what is needed to play it on a good level, and still I am finding myself climbing a very steep mountain.

As a player, I have been running a DPS Ranger build that provides me with some space and mobility to be learning the basic specific stuff. My muscle memory for keys is fairly established, and I’d say I can hold my own with players of similar experience level. However, I am having considerable problems, mainly with the following aspects:
» Too much stuff is happening. The number of meaningful ability effects filling the gameplay at some given moments is overwhelming for a new player, and if you do not know what they mean you can hardly survive for even two seconds.
» Knowing how other classes work is decisive. Since there are many variations to how a class can by configured, the long term accumulation of experience is completely decisive as a factor. Iow, inexperience in how the other classes work and what they do makes it virtually impossible to make any kind of basic stand in the presence of those who do know it.

Those who gained their experience gradually, earning it as the game aged, might not recognize this level of difficulty. However, this represents an almost unsurpassable barrier to new players, one that I suspect very few will have the patience to cross, because being a punching bag in a chaotic and hostile environment is simply neither a pleasant nor a viable way to learn. The matchmaking design could improve this situation, by only putting together players of similar levels of experience, but I suspect the queue times could dangerously suffer with it. The other way to improve it is by decreasing the global level of complexity: skill can still be plenty of a factor without being so heavy of a factor. Some core elite players may dislike it, because their advantage comes from grasping that complexity, but I believe everybody knows what happens to a game and to a Community when there is no basic space for new players to grow and learn.

Coming from all this, a question to the other players… From what I have observed, to reach a good level of skill in GW2 PvP I need to play all the classes, so that I can somehow be able to spot their casting animations and be prepared to deal with their specific abilities (such as reflecting damage for example, something I know it exists, but, after a month of dedication and general research on the subject of PvP, is still completely beyond my awareness during a match). So, considering the amount of classes and abilities involved, I should be looking at something like at least a year of dedication to understand the basics. The question is: am I missing something?

Constructive answers and participation appreciated in advance.

Well in GW2 you need to react more often to abilities than in traditional mmo’s so yeah its probably a bit confusing in the beginning. But just learn the key abilities of important meta professions ( found on metabuild).

Identify the professions you are having trouble with, now go duel them in a dueling server, watch gameplay from ESL players, try playing it yourself to get a feel for what they do.

Finally, support druid is decent but dps ranger certainly isn’t the best pvp spec at this point in time. You might wanna pick up something else.

My advice is would be to multiclass 100 games on all classes shoot give you basic kwnolage of game also get some of more seasoned guildmate to play with you to get ropes in ur hand faster

PvP hasn’t been all that great since HoT.

A big problem is skill bloating.

Another big problem is that elite specs are necessary for literally every class. They should have been balanced with all the other trait lines, but they weren’t. They should have been simply a different way to play that class, but they weren’t.

Now it’s literally skill spamming whereas in the core game it felt a lot smoother and fun to play, you had time to react to situations and there was more skill involved with using your abilities correctly.

TL;DR: elite trait lines weren’t balanced with the core game, possibly to garner more sales.

Many thanks to everybody for your participation and help!

I have found all contributions helpful, and felt especially in tune to Asrat’s clear observations and sense of guidance, and with pepsis’ awareness about the question that I too am having on GW2 PvP: is it worth it to learn it to a good level, for me as a new player? And, btw, I am currently undecided about it, and this is actually why I started this thread.

About the dps Ranger, yes, my experience so far has been telling me that all other classes have a wider and better set of solutions to play the PvP game. I think it is very unfortunate to see any class being so heavily left behind as the classic Ranger is atm, and equally unfortunate to see any one class heavily outperforming any of the others. I think diversity is important, and some level of imbalance can be a very good thing (as per rock/paper/scissors); however, linear structural superiority is a whole different story, and I see nothing good coming from it. Btw, considering some of the comments I have been reading, has there been any declaration from Anet on the effects that HoT has had into sPvP in this specific level?

(I recently had a 1 v 1 close encounter with a druid in a match, and he just stood in from of me, still, for 15/20 seconds, sustaining all the damage and interrupts I delivered, with mostly a full hp bar. Honestly, it felt extremely wrong.)

Anyway, my experience with a Ranger [LB/GS + Wild/Beast/Marks] has been as follows:
» I feel underpowered fighting for points. I need to move to (barely) stay alive, where other classes can stand and cap. A Ranger generally needs to position himself in relation to the opponent (iow, has to move/keep away from the opponent to earn any sort of advantage), and since score comes essencially from holding points, needing to kite represents a disadvantage.
» I find it very hard to kite, and often get the impression that it is generally much easier to close a distance than to keep it (Thieves would be the extreme example of this). I find myself running away a lot, because when I am targetted it is the only thing that may eventually keep me alive.
» I find it very hard to target opponents in the midst of chaos. Minions (namely when there is more than one Necro), and especially mesmer clones combined with stealth are, imo, too powerful a way to counter the little I can do.
» I had to pick specializations that reduce the CD for “heal as one” and “signet of the stone”, because those are the only very rudimentary ways to sustain hp’s that I know of (btw, when in comparison I observe the level of hp sustainability that most other classes have, I stand speachless). I also reduced the CD for LB and GS, as the only way to somehow produce enough damage to pull something through. But, by doing this, the pace is even higher, which does not leave much space for enjoyment and wit.
» Quickening Zephyr + Rapid Fire is probably the only good card I have, but, again, completely speed based. Furthermore, where I am struggling to decypher casting animations for every other class, Rapid Fire is there with a clear pewpewpew for a good long while, allowing an easy dodge.
» When I attack from a distance, terrain effects are too often unclear, and wasting my one damage burst in some invisible obstacle can be quite a pain.

Beyond all this heavy adversity, the specific fun I am having coming from this class comes from sometimes being able to: 1) trick other players into wrong decisions (ex: having 2 players chasing me into nowhere, or into a group of my teammates), 2) earning superiority with movement, patiently picking the right moment to strike. Not much, but it is what is keeping me playing, along with the sense of progressive learning.

Two questions now…

Considering what I have described, any specific suggestions on how to play a dps Ranger, or improve what I am doing?

Any advice on which class to try next? My goal would be to keep learning, and to have some fun while learning. And I do prefer simple over complicated, if that allows me space to enjoy the game instead of worrying about how precisely I must hit this or that key.

Again, thanks in advance for your participation and helpful insights.

Tomiyou.3790:

This problem is only gonna get worse with Anet reducing the CD on so many abilities, instead of increasing their power. Passive procs also come to mind, since new players have absolutely no way of knowing which enemy procced that passive.
They actually tried to make game more casual by introducing passive procs and lower CDs, but it seems that concept has backfired. Unless I understand the whole thing wrongly.
Edit: Remembered one more thing. The unranked queue is terrible at matchmaking, it sometimes puts me with my main Ele (some decent amount of hours on it) with some F2P players. Wut?

I want you to explain to me exactly how you come to this conclusion (that reducing cd’s is going to be negative for the game).

Cd Reduction allows for more use, which removed timing aspects of game play, which puts both skilled and unskilled players on the same field of play.

This is good for balance, not bad.

Whats bad for balance is massive amounts of power in classes, and massive amounts of complexity.

Zelulose.8695:

mistsim.2748:

Seventh Angel.4879:

» Too much stuff is happening. The number of meaningful ability effects filling the gameplay at some given moments is overwhelming for a new player,

oh this isnt a new player issue. gw2 is a clusterkitten spamfest, and it’s only been getting WORSE as theyve added more conditions, boons and overall junk on the screen. it’s a common MMO pvp problem – it’s not designed to be a pvp game from the ground up. and it’s not designed by people who understand pvp.

this is coming from someone with over 3k hours in top mmr spvp. you will realize the same sooner or later. everyone does.

This is why I keep saying league of legends is my go to for pvp. People think graphics and fighting mechanics make GW2 so superior but I argue that league has one thing GW2 doesn’t (this comparison is for the improvement of GW2). League has distinct CD that you can blow and have nothing left to do besides a.a. League also has limitations to prevent skill spamming clutter. It also depends on reaction time to win trades. It also has more active balance. GW2 is far superior in every aspect except these. Until the balance team fixes these weaknesses their game will not be considered a serious esport by a vast community of players. The best players on esports these days desire mechanical skill which takes practice not skill spamming.

i play Dota and Overwatch. with OW launching in a few weeks, im basically done with gw2 for good. good pvp comes down to clarity, variety, interesting mechanics, and appropriate balancing. gw2 has none of these after 3 years, so it’s time i threw in the towel. i love the cosmetics and my characters, the pve is “lovely”, and i had some amazing times in wvw and soloqing in spvp. but the game’s foundations are so incredibly weak with no light at the end of the tunnel. it comes down to lack of PTR, a horrible QA process, lengthy implementation of patches, and devs that dont play their game at a high level. for these reasons, i dont see the game ever improving. i know i waited long enough.

the main things i would do as a dev is halve the number of unique condis and boons, make some elite utilities more impactful, reduce the number of utilities, make the spec revolve around the weapon first and foremost, remove amulets, runes and sigils, and slim the trait lines down to basically one defining feature each (so picking 3 trait lines would give you 3 perks and certain stats). basically make the game a slightly more interesting moba. this is how simple you have to go for a good pvp game. but then it wouldnt be an MMO. this is exactly why the genre is dying, with dedicated pvp games becoming central and single player games becoming so good and satisfying to those who like gear/level progression.

Seventh Angel.4879:

Considering what I have described, any specific suggestions on how to play a dps Ranger, or improve what I am doing?

power LB ranger is a roaming +1 spec. so roam and help others win their duels. given the game’s balance and taking conquest into consideration, a well-rounded spec like the druid will always be the superior choice. it can heal, buff/debuff, kill, bunker, and roam. they killed most core specs with the addition of elites and tried to band-aid the problem by tweaking amulet stats. the game has absolutely no variety and will forever be Build Wars 2; i.e. figure out the best build for each prof and spam it until the next meta.