Why: to increase knowledge of the community about the capability of meta builds and facilitate team creation, strategic decision making, and a healthy competitive environment. 1v1 capability matters significantly despite this being a team game. In conquest you have 3 capture points and only 5 players. While good teams will maximize number advantages and create mismatches, 1v1 scenarios are nonetheless quite common and a strong determining factor in team composition. In game tactics can also be improved by good knowledge of the matchups i.e. “a spirit ranger is capping our close node, who should we send to deal with them?” When creating a meta composition, you need to consider the ability of any given class to hold their own in a 1v1 against the other popular builds.
What: a table that lists all the possible profession matchups and the expected result for the most popular meta builds. Over time, the table could be expanded to include multiple builds for some professions. The table contains the expected result of the matchup using symbols:
Up arrow – advantage to the class in the corresponding column
Left arrow – advantage to the class in the corresponding row
Two headed arrow – even match. Either class has a reasonable chance of winning this fight depending on things such as timing of long-cooldown abilities, use of evades, positioning, etc.
Infinity – stalemate. This fight is expected to last for a period of at least 60 seconds, after which time a 1v1 is likely to be disrupted by help from teammates.
A noted caveat of these results is that I expect the fight to happen on or around a node. If one class only survives by repeatedly disengaging and cannot force a neutralization, I consider that a loss. If they can force the enemy off the point and keep it neutral for at least 60 seconds even if it requires disengage/stealth I would consider that a stalemate.
Also, in these hypothetical matchups we must assume both players have a high and equal skill level.
Lastly the meta builds I have included in the chart stem from observations in casted tournament play and teams playing at the ~top 200 leaderboard level. Many of them I pulled from http://mistpedia.net/index.php/All_Builds
Who: I will try to keep this matchup list up to date with changes in the meta and community feedback. I need your help! I encourage people to post in this thread their thoughts on particular matchups. I do not play every class and probably am wrong about some of the matchups (and perhaps some of the builds!). I would very much appreciate your expertise via discussion in this thread.
How: Please state in your post clearly which matchup you are discussing and what the expected outcome is (i.e. “Ele v Mesmer is advantage Ele because…” or “Ranger v Guard is even match not stalemate because…). Also if you think a build I have not included is the new meta build, please explain/link the build and the results of the matchups with the other builds in the chart (including the old meta build for that profession). This thread should NOT be the place to discuss balance, or how x profession is too strong in 1v1. If you have ideas for how traits/skills/utilities should be patched in order to change the outcome of a matchup, please make a separate thread. I think we can have some great discussions here and I will use the collected feedback on individual matchups to update the chart accordingly.
The chart and builds are current below as of 8/12/13
Champion Illusionist
Stormbluff Isle
(edited by Kavia.8249)