Guild Wars 2

Rising Dusk.2408:

Low Demand on Player Skill / Knowledge / Timing
- AI Builds (Turret Engi / Minionmancer / Spirit Ranger / etc)
- Power Necromancer
- Shoutbow
- PU Mesmer

Medium Demand on Player Skill / Knowledge / Timing
- Bunker Guardian
- MediGS Guardian
- Condi Necromancer
- Condi Engineer

High Demand on Player Skill / Knowledge / Timing
- CeleDD Elementalist
- CeleRifle Engineer
- Fresh Air Elementalist
- P/D and S/D Thief
- MediHammer Guardian
- Shatter Mesmer

I didn’t cover everything but I covered a lot. Some of these builds are on the edge of one classification into another, but this is generally how I see things in the current meta.

It really depends on what you consider part of player skill with a class. I included rotational knowledge with a build because knowing where your class belongs (in the team fight, roaming, defending 2 points, etc) is important. Some are better at certain roles than others. Complex mechanical rotations are definitely more demanding of player skill, which is why double kit CeleRifle Engineer and CeleDD Elementalist are tougher mechanically to play.

Another factor is “how easy is it for you to be bad at this build”. Most high burst glassy builds are very easy to be terrible with, meaning you get burst easily or you rely on getting in/out of combat reliably. It’s easy to say that a Thief is braindead because it hides in Stealth a lot, but knowing where to be and how to effectively rotate on a Thief is something I see a lot of even high-tier Thieves be ineffective at. It’s tough to always be in the right place at the right time.

I think builds that have minimal mechanical complexity and typically sit on or around points and are very defensive are extraordinarily forgiving of a player being awful and are very rewarding even in spite of that. Meanwhile, I consider things like Power Necromancer very braindead to play because they rely on spamming the 1 key a lot and have extremely simple burst rotations (if any at all). It gets even sillier in Lich Form.

Lol this is bs. Shatter Mesmer, P/D Thief, DD Cele need high demand on player skill? You must be kidding

Ehecatl.9172:

Mooncow.6847:

iKeostuKen.2738:

Mooncow.6847:

Many of you are confusing ineffective builds with hard builds, staff zerker ele is exceptionally easy, do not think otherwise simply because it dies fast. Also true of many other builds

How is it exceptionally easy?

because as a zerker staff ele your damage comes from a few set of skill (lava font, metor shower, ice spike, earth 2) and all it requires is you putting your mouse on the opponent and being as far away as possible. Not much more to it than that

Is that all you do as a zerker staff ele? Because if so you’re vastly under-utilizing your skills.

Rotation is important as you can be providing might to your team while dishing out that damage. Another huge part of the playstyle is AoE crowd control with Frozen Ground and Static Field to trap enemies in the kill zone and mess up their rotations with chill. Even Unsteady Ground can be useful for stacking cripple if you drop it in the center of the point as the enemies will have to run across it multiple times if they want to avoid leaving the point and remaining mobile. Then there’s tactical placement of your water fields to help deal with enemy condition pressure on your allies and letting your allies blast said water fields for more heals.

This is all ignoring when the enemy eventually notices you. At that point the skill requirement exponentially increases. You have to vastly out play your opponent to win a 1v1, and you have to be very good at timing your cantrips, dodges, crowd controls, and Burning Retreat to survive pressure long enough for your team to peel.

Aside from the raw mechanical requirements you also have to be really good at placement and map rotation to be effective. Where you are when you begin casting is extremely important, as well as what fights you choose to jump in on.

Ok well clearly you haven’t played the game in a year, thinking unsteady ground still cripples. And yes I’ve played it recently, and no this build is not about stacking might and supporting allies, it’s about aoe damage on point