Guild Wars 2

Anyone else noticed how suddenly the amount of mesmer, necro’s and ranger’s has shot through the roof recently?

I personally have been against 3 sets of minion master necro/mesmer only teams in the past two hours and between that at least two rangers per team every game.

I get specialisations are probably to do with the mesmers and necros but even on Twitch there seems to be a ton more mesmer streamers than normal.

Didn’t notice the mesmer part (maybe because I mostly play mesmer and the MM tries not to put other mesmers on my team), but I do see an awful lot of necros recently. Rangers have made a huge portion of the soloq crowd since the LB change.

I guess people like playing zerker professions lately, and necro and ranger are the most effective provided you don’t face focused fire. No idea about mesmer though. Maybe it’s the chronomancer and reaper hype, like you said.

I too have seen a huge increase in Necromancers. Mesmer players are still rare to be honest and I normally don’t see more than 2 in a game as the MM seems to split them up a lot, especially when I play with better Mesmers. Rangers seem to be pretty similar to how they were before, maybe they’ve even declined. Necros though, like kitten they’ve leaped out of the closet with the power builds, I’m assuming it’s the Reaper hype alongside the Foot in the Grave buff they got recently.

Benjamin.8237:

alongside the Foot in the Grave buff they got recently.

Power necros don’t usually take that trait. I suppose the lich buff has more to do with it, as well as the downstate damage buff.

You’re seeing more power necros because the build currently is very trolly and easy to pick up and play at a standard level. It’s not a lot of effort to roll someone with lich form or downed damage or the procs it has. Once more pugs realize you focus the necro first because it can’t survive in any build any type of proper focus they’ll go find a better class. Class needs a rework before these things get balanced out though.

L Step.8659:

You’re seeing more power necros because the build currently is very trolly and easy to pick up and play at a standard level. It’s not a lot of effort to roll someone with lich form or downed damage or the procs it has. Once more pugs realize you focus the necro first because it can’t survive in any build any type of proper focus they’ll go find a better class. Class needs a rework before these things get balanced out though.

You are optimistic. I would have said “once more pugs realize it is a good idea to focus the player with a little target on his head”.

The Necromancers and Rangers are a result of how braindead two of their strongest builds are, both require minimal effort and barely any input, thus can be played by even a beginner to the game, so long as they have a basic understanding of the game.

The mesmer? Eh, dunno on this one, seeing it a lot too, the good mesmers stand out far above the bads though, I’m seeing a lot of mesmers just unloading everything and being insanely predictable.

L Step.8659:

You’re seeing more power necros because the build currently is very trolly and easy to pick up and play at a standard level. It’s not a lot of effort to roll someone with lich form or downed damage or the procs it has. Once more pugs realize you focus the necro first because it can’t survive in any build any type of proper focus they’ll go find a better class. Class needs a rework before these things get balanced out though.

When i started PvP 3 months ago, I played 300 matches as a Condi Necro before discovering that there is such a thing as a power necro. Poor me lol, condi can be fun though

You see more of them because you’re used to seeing Guardian, Warrior, Elementalists, Thieves, and Engineers. You’re used to seeing those so you wouldn’t count them in when you’re playing with them, while when you see 3 necros, rangers or mesmers, you suddenly will put attention to it, and only count them.

Next time try counting how many Warriors, Engineers, Guardians, Elementalists, and thieves do you see in a match too alright?

All 3 are low risk high reward, especially the rangers. Mesmers less so but still, hiding behind illusions until everything dies is so easy.

At this point it’s hard to see a match without these three on each team.

Illusions are wonderful. The flashy Mesmer plays are just icing on the cake.

The thing is that celestial builds are more an issue of classes being able to do everything relatively well making the meta feel stale rather than the builds being necessarily easy. Another issue is that right now Celestial and Berserk amulets seem to trump all others by a huge margin.

In terms of particular builds…

Warrior builds were always kind of hurp and the class is good for beginners due to its innate tankiness. At the same time they always have to be in the thick of things which puts them in a direct line of fire, thus at a higher risk. I actually don’t have much of an issue with shoutbow because it’s more about applying pressure and providing utility rather than directly impacting the outcome of the match.

Guardians have to rely on advanced tactics that involve timing and weapon weaving in order to be truly effective. They can be played by chasing the enemy around while spamming 1 and sustaining but in that case you may as well pick a Ranger and stay out of harms way altogether.

Thieves need practice and quick reflexes. They were always on the higher end of skill bracket due to how squishy they were. Sure, Thieves have more sustain than before, stealth is also the greatest disengage tool ever but really they pop in seconds if caught and have to put themselves at a high risk while performing their burst in melee range.

Engineers and Eles need an extra set of fingers to do well with. The builds they use are also more utility centric rather than revolving around instagibbing people with one skill.

This is not to say I find this meta particularly exciting. In fact I don’t like the idea of having a bunch of highly versatile classes instead of having them excell at a specific thing. The thing is that the 5 meta classes + Mesmer have advanced mechanics that are fun to use and play against. At the same time we have Rangers and Necros who excell at being pure DPS and feel completely dumb to play as or against.

With mesmers it’s a case of having the option to rely on advanced mechanics to great effect but also having the option to endlessly juke it out with illusions without bothering much. I’m generally ok with it though, it makes Mesmers feel more like what they were supposed to be. GW1 Mesmers were basically like Necros with less conditions and more interrupts/control.

Mesmer is a high risk high reward class, Necromancer is an average risk, average reward class and Ranger is a low risk, average to high reward class in my opinion. I wouldn’t say that all three of them are easy which is why they are abundant. Ranger does have the lowest skill floor in the game as far as I’m concerned but it also has a pretty high skill ceiling, as evident by the lack of competitive Rangers.

Benjamin.8237:

Mesmer is a high risk high reward class, Necromancer is an average risk, average reward class and Ranger is a low risk, average to high reward class in my opinion. I wouldn’t say that all three of them are easy which is why they are abundant. Ranger does have the lowest skill floor in the game as far as I’m concerned but it also has a pretty high skill ceiling, as evident by the lack of competitive Rangers.

Let me complete your list abit:
Celestial Shoutbow Warrior = lowest risk high reward.
Celestial Ele = medium risk highest reward.
Celestial Engi = medium risk high reward.
Condition Engi = low risk medium ~ high reward.
Mediation Guardian = medium risk high reward.
Thief = high risk high reward.
Power ranger = medium risk medium reward.
Power necro = high risk medium reward.
Power mesmer = high risk high reward.

Benjamin.8237:

Mesmer is a high risk high reward class, Necromancer is an average risk, average reward class and Ranger is a low risk, average to high reward class in my opinion. I wouldn’t say that all three of them are easy which is why they are abundant. Ranger does have the lowest skill floor in the game as far as I’m concerned but it also has a pretty high skill ceiling, as evident by the lack of competitive Rangers.

I generally agree but I feel like you have to drop the pewpew build to tap into more advanced ranger mechanics.

Wartitan.8639:

Anyone else noticed how suddenly the amount of mesmer, necro’s and ranger’s has shot through the roof recently?

I personally have been against 3 sets of minion master necro/mesmer only teams in the past two hours and between that at least two rangers per team every game.

I get specialisations are probably to do with the mesmers and necros but even on Twitch there seems to be a ton more mesmer streamers than normal.

Its cos those 3 classes are brokenly overpowered. How can thieves, warriors and engis compete with rangers, necros and mesmers. They are totally broken. I saw a necro and a ranger the other day and they were doing ok. This calls for a hotfix.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Wartitan.8639:

Anyone else noticed how suddenly the amount of mesmer, necro’s and ranger’s has shot through the roof recently?

I personally have been against 3 sets of minion master necro/mesmer only teams in the past two hours and between that at least two rangers per team every game.

I get specialisations are probably to do with the mesmers and necros but even on Twitch there seems to be a ton more mesmer streamers than normal.

Its cos those 3 classes are brokenly overpowered. How can thieves, warriors and engis compete with rangers, necros and mesmers. They are totally broken. I saw a necro and a ranger the other day and they were doing ok. This calls for a hotfix.

Lmao.

this, so this

Lordrosicky.5813:

Wartitan.8639:

Anyone else noticed how suddenly the amount of mesmer, necro’s and ranger’s has shot through the roof recently?

I personally have been against 3 sets of minion master necro/mesmer only teams in the past two hours and between that at least two rangers per team every game.

I get specialisations are probably to do with the mesmers and necros but even on Twitch there seems to be a ton more mesmer streamers than normal.

Its cos those 3 classes are brokenly overpowered. How can thieves, warriors and engis compete with rangers, necros and mesmers. They are totally broken. I saw a necro and a ranger the other day and they were doing ok. This calls for a hotfix.

I loled. However, it’s not because these three professions are a little bit behind in the meta in top tier tournaments that they are less played. I DO see a lot of rangers and necros lately. I DO think it is because their power builds are relatively straight forward and easy to pick up. That doesn’t mean they have a low skill ceiling, and that doesn’t mean they are good/OP, but that’s just a fact.

Ive seen a lot of 3 guardian teams as well.

uhohhotdog.3598:

Ive seen a lot of 3 guardian teams as well.

True. In my MMR zone at least, I see more guardians than mesmers. And even more than rangers lately. Only necros are more frequent I’d say.

This thread in a nutshell: Every profession except the one I play is brain dead easy and overpowered, low risk high reward.

I play venom Thief atm. It’s the braindeadest thing ever. Not to say I normally enjoy taking that path with what I play, but this build somehow pleases my inner hipster enough that I spam it. But I digress.

It’s because of the turret engi nerf…. Now they need something else to press 1-2 buttons to win. (Not including mesmer)

Spirigo.2897:

I play venom Thief atm. It’s the braindeadest thing ever. Not to say I normally enjoy taking that path with what I play, but this build somehow pleases my inner hipster enough that I spam it. But I digress.

I feel brain-dead when I play shoutbow.
I feel brain-dead when I play Engi.
But they’re fine to you I guess.
Hmmmm….

Oh, I also feel brain-dead when against some clueless folks in Hot-Join.

Kako.1930:

This thread in a nutshell: Every profession except the one I play is brain dead easy and overpowered, low risk high reward.

I play all and my find a joy in all but to me it looks like it’s a meta vs non meta argument the idea that a class in general should be significantly lower than the rest actually 3 because team capacity is 5 same argument for PvE. Sure some things are seen as cheesy by others but I would to remind that if that “cheesy” stuff has to go something else has to come same way with necro we’ll sacrifice our downed state damage for real competitiveness but we won’t just let it go imo it did happen through bug fixes and not pure buffs.

Sagat.3285:

Kako.1930:

This thread in a nutshell: Every profession except the one I play is brain dead easy and overpowered, low risk high reward.

I play all and my find a joy in all but to me it looks like it’s a meta vs non meta argument the idea that a class in general should be significantly lower than the rest actually 3 because team capacity is 5 same argument for PvE. Sure some things are seen as cheesy by others but I would to remind that if that “cheesy” stuff has to go something else has to come same way with necro we’ll sacrifice our downed state damage for real competitiveness but we won’t just let it go imo it did happen through bug fixes and not pure buffs.

I think the powerful downed state is one of the more interesting things about the Necro. In fact I feel like the downed state in general is not as impactful as one might expect from a mechanic that is one of the focal points of the game. Although certain classes can indeed shred 50% or so of the target’s HP while downed.

How about this conspiracy theory:

Its cz those are leftover classes.

No one wants them , while every team needs 2x shoutbow and 2x engie and the other braindead specs.
Therefore every top5000 cele monkey has risen to top, while the 3x mentioned classes have formed a “bubble of trash” falling and overflowing the average mmr zone.