Guild Wars 2

I am just wondering with this meta website and tournaments/seasons comming 1st of December. Does Meta mean “must play” since when I watched the ESL it seemed that all the meta classes had the same build? I am not expecting to be pro or anything, but I like to compete what I smell here is, people are forced to play 1 of the 6 meta builds or else your team will complain when you go solo Q, just as in League of Legends and other PvP games. I was wondering, how many of you play with your own build and how many will play one of the meta builds in seasons?

It means commonly used.

Ty, so a lot of people just play there own builds or hybrids ?

I play my own build all the time. Although, it does not mean they can’t be meta potential. Most of the meta we see these days are from broken builds roaming free. So it’s like a battle of Titans and Gods. Mallyx Revenants vs. Chillaids Reaper…Who will win?!

Then you have all the in-betweens that struggles against those extremely sharp builds. My sharp I mean builds that do their things perfectly. Condition Reaper must have the harshest condition pressure seen in a long time.

“meta” means;

in the current state of the game, a “meta build” is a build that will perform well in comparison to other professions and build. A build that is a “meta build” will perform better in the Conquest scene than other builds that have been attempted, as has also evidence to back it up.

I, personally, love making my own builds and crafting it to my own taste. There is no “blanket” build that will cover all your bases. A “meta” build will have the “perfect” balance of DPS and Defense that will help you survive and actually affect the outcome of the match. If you find a build you like using, and you have moderate success with, use it. However, don’t be surprised when you’re getting stomped by pug soloq heroes running carrion frostfire as Reaper

Meta builds are always subject to change, else, the meta would never change. Sometimes the "meta builds" aren’t even the meta builds - a variant of what is listed is in fact more commonly used if not used exclusively. So no, you’re not forced to play a meta build, but if you want to be effective in a team, you’ll want to take one and tweak it to suit you and your team, if not simply play it as it is most commonly played.

People experiment and test different builds in different compositions often, and if they find success, and it catches on, it has a chance to become meta. The problem is most players don’t appreciate what makes a build worthy of being in the meta. It’s not about the build itself being good or bad, but how it performs in particular role(s), synergises with other builds, and what it brings to a team that nothing else seeking to fill the same role, can.

Remember meta builds are meta together, not individually. This means one meta build may be awful and weak in a particular comp or in pug queue, but be strong in a team consisting of players running the other meta builds. One build might seem better than one that is considered meta, but when you consider it in a team, it’s not always the same verdict.

“Meta” is a word so you have to determine the definition -_-u

So you can talk about the “Torny level meta”, in which case you’re either talking those builds run in a Torny, or those that won a Torny.

There’s the “Meta” which is “commonly used”

It could simply mean, Meta: What’s viable

Some time people mean “the pro builds I took from Meta Battle where those self-declared super important guys decide what’s what”.

Most people won’t have a kitten clue you’re not meta if you aren’t 100% a meta build lol.

Some people are hipsters and try to run their own builds, but its incredibly hard to make builds that work outside of the dominant ones.

Anet has basically given up trying to create a truly varied and balance trait system, and have basically left every class with a bunch of mandatory traits, with maybe 1 traitline you can vary.

If you try to play your own build, you can do so up to a certain level, then you reach the point where people stop making glaring mistakes and you can no longer rely on superior skill to beat your opponent. At that point, you start getting stomped by the superior “meta” builds, even played to a much lower level than you may be, that usually abuse whatever is most broken for one class at a given time.

BlackBeard.2873:

Some people are hipsters and try to run their own builds, but its incredibly hard to make builds that work outside of the dominant ones.

Anet has basically given up trying to create a truly varied and balance trait system, and have basically left every class with a bunch of mandatory traits, with maybe 1 traitline you can vary.(…)

Yeah it looks like game went that path… sadly as expected.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Some time people mean “the pro builds I took from Meta Battle where those self-declared super important guys decide what’s what”.

I was like that, thinking meta battle had the meta build and the only one existing, then I realized they thought they knew every class inside out and had the veto right over “what is viable or not” without testing what was posted.
Started roaming the forums and looking at streams… longer but better.