Guild Wars 2

Just thought I’d solicit people’s perspectives on what is currently happening in their sphere of PvP, and why?

My personal experiences are fairly inline with the “meta”, although I am simply in Emerald Division, playing only the daily 3 games per day (getting 2 pips per win for the last 3+ wins has been nice though), where teams are often composed of primarily of MallyxHeralds, ChronoBunkers, Tempests (~60+%), and a splashing of Reapers and Scrappers (~25%), a few DragonHunters and Druids (~10%), and barely and Thieves or Warriors (~5%).

As to what caused this particular distribution; while I do think that Chronomancer Bunkers make the game not fun to watch, and warp the meta in their own way (3 point playstyle is very possible with them due to portals and stall potential), they are not the primary offender in terms of what is limiting class diversity.

This honor goes to the MallyxHerald. It’s mace auto attack alone is near broken enough to limit build diversity. Remember when Anet FIRST announced torment on auto attack for Mesmer? Well, there was a HUGE outcry because people knew how strong torment could be. Turns out Mesmer’s auto attack speed was simply too slow to actually be a problem. This is NOT the case for Revenant Mace, which can apply those high torment stacks from auto attack alone.

MallyxHerald ALONE makes it so that builds that can not handle the reapplication of all these conditions are forced out of the meta. Tempest: DiamondSKin. MallyxHerald: Readily Accessible Resistance. ChronoBunker: Condition Removal on Shatter, as well as evading a ridiculous amount.

This post came out a lot harsher against the MallyxHerald than I wanted it to be… Was intending to just analyze what I’m seeing in the meta, and give my insights onto why it’s occurring. Regardless, I’d like to see what other people are experiencing and hear about why they think it’s occurring.

I think both specs in their own right are responsible for this lack of build diversity. Thief for example still has, in theory, features that are great in conquest (mainly, its mobility and burst damage). But it has very little condi removal (hence, it’s countered by Mallyx rev), and its usefulness relies on its capacity to quickly burst targets, which is nearly impossible against revenants and mesmers that have a ridiculous amount of “oh-kitten” mechanics. The same can be said of warrior, that simply does not have enough survivability compared to these two monsters.

Add the crazy immunity to conditions, and you have a good idea on why the meta is in that state.

Possible solution: nerf a lot of the additional survival abilities that HoT provided. It will probably be enough to bring burst build back in the meta. The good things about the cele meta (if there was one) was that two comps were possible: full celes (bunker) with a thief, or mesmer/thief to burst down targets. This last option does not exist anymore post-HoT.

Your post reminded me of another aspect that made thieves redundant, which was that decapping has become less than viable when under the current meta, nearly all the points are constantly contested/under watch by builds who’s time to kill is way too long. Each Mesmer can basically have coverage over two points for 60/72 seconds with portal, as long as one is not currently contested. It’s how I was often able to win playing bunker mesmer prior to HoT, now it’s just full blown ridiculous/way too powerful team utility.