Here are a few tips to making a “balanced” build, since it has recently come up that they are not viable since the Meta has skewed towards a “bunker or burst only” composition with pick up play.
There are plenty of topics on how bunkers or burst are runing PvP, so please… let’s keep this constructive and throw advice around on how to make balanced builds work for you and your team.
1) A good balanced build does not mean you get to take a little of this, a little of that, a little of this and then go play, they still require a ‘theme’ to be successful. If you’re focused on doing damage (most are) you will not completely filled trait lines for power and crit, so you make up for this by making sure you stack traits such as making blinds cause vulnerability, or immobilization raising your damage, or bleeds, etc. Stack these things… and make sure, if you have a trait that says “do x more damage to bleeding enemies” that you carry all the bleeds and sigils to keep bleeds lasting longer that you can. The tradeoff for the balanced spec, and what makes them great in group play, is that you can also get toughness of vitality, offering you up that good bit of anti-burst you need if you have some good reflexes and are pro-active with your CC abilities towards classes you know are going to try to burst you down.
2) Balanced builds work better in 2s or 3s. Burst and bunker are so popular because they can do what they do on their own, without help… but balanced builds become REALLY powerful teamed up with the right other player. Just imagine an immobilize specialist combined with a burst damage player… you just infinately increased the use of the burst player because instead of two guys spamming all their DPS attacks, and say, the bunker Guardian shrugging them off with their utilities, you lock down the Guardian in place, strip boons, knockbacks, etc. while the other player goes untethered to wreck havoc on a helpless player. So if you’re prone to go out alone roaming for fights, as a balanced build, if you’ve not considered these 2 things, you might struggle.
3) Balanced builds are not always better at just killing other players. Some stack mobility effects, so they become the best at re-capping a point… some carry an arsenal of knockbacks to keep the enemy at bay without even letting them get into a DPS rotation. Most of the best balanced builds I’ve seen are support and control builds, and again, work better with a partner, but can also “bunker” in a pinch, and if timed correctly, can still take down a good bunker.
4) Balanced build does not mean you don’t still have to go deep into a trait line. It’s more about getting the skills you need than anything else. For instance, my build below requires that my turrets do as much damage as possible, and their damage is not affected by power rating, so going all the way into the Toughness trait line to grab that extra 15% damage ability is a must, and oddly, by going that deep into Toughness I actually increase my DPS. Make sure your traits synce up right, don’t focus completely on +power or +precision… there are runes and sigils that help make up for whatever you need there for your build.
It isn’t easier to make and play a successful balanced build, for several reasons… you have to sync up your runes and traits much more closely, you need to work better in 2s and 3s, and you also just overall need to be a good player, and with the game out only 2 months now, most lean towards the easier options, and that typically means all offense or all defense, because they give you more room for error.
I will put my money where my mouth is now and even leave my most recent build up that I consider to be a “balanced” build. I have used and won tPvP tournaments with this with pug teams. (I will admit my actual tournament team has me play the 1 bunker, but that’s also because… I just play a good bunker to them).
Damage/CC Engineer
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcMM9cz0owhxMMMwxMGaxa0msozVbo8khk707khk707khk70z7kNs70V7owY
(this spec focuses on maximizing straightforward damage while giving you tons of CC to both keep the opponent from moving, and blowing them back away when you need to, either with your overcharged shot on a short CD, thumper turret, or by denotating any turret you have nearby, also sending them flying… if the need of a stun-break turns you off, you can easily replace any turret with a gadget or elixer that does that and it doesn’t terribly affect the usefulness of the build… the points in toughness and a vitality ensure you gain protection in the most critical moments to protect you from heavy burst).
Let’s try to keep this thread filled with advice. We all know the complaints on bunkers and burst, so let’s try to show new players how to go about designing a good balanced build character.