I’m sure there’s likely many who could agree with this. And I’m almost certain that the biggest issue as to “why” is because the Meta is incredibly stale, boring, and full of faceroll / easy mode builds. And in all of my experience, this is because SPvP really doesn’t actually support build diversity at all.
Before I sound like some arrogant idiot (and even if I do after, oh noes /sarcasm), I started this game in SPvP pre-launch and was very dedicated to it for a few months in. I wasn’t interested in a PvE game, I just wanted PvP, so naturally SPvP had great appeal to me. However after a few months of really learning the nuances of the game and experiencing the start of Guardians block bug, thank you mace 3 and the following patches that “fixed” it (except made it worse up until they FINALLY did fix it, gg Arenanubs) … I took leave for a few months, then simply came back off and on because why not? Free to play.
Except I always ended up frustrated with SPvP, EVERY time I play that god forsaken part of this game. I almost always regret playing SPvP as it’s just been one infuriating and annoying experience after another. And no, it’s not because I get tossed around like a midget in a circus, I play what I play quite well … however it’s all about exactly what I do play. Which has begrudgingly lead me to experimenting with PvE, as much as I dreaded the grind, which has been long and for the most part, quite boring. But it was for the sake of seeing if my build used in SPvP also sucked in WvW as not only did I get sick of my build just being a stupid “troll build” by this God "Meta"’s standards, it actually felt very under performing in some areas.
Anyway … much to my surprise, it doesn’t suck at all in WvW, in fact it’s quite strong and incredibly fun to play by comparison of how it operates in SPvP. And now I actually hate playing SPvP due to just how much of a glaring contrast there is between WvW and SPvP, and that boils purely down to stat allocation. (The only reason I even go into the heart of the mists now is for a quick laurel, and then I’m done for the day and often times leave frustrated because of how BAD my build is there.)
So in my experience, it’s like Arenanet has this fine tuned machine that they’ve worked on for years when it comes to PvE and WvW … but then when it comes to SPvP … some idiot had the bright idea of using a single amulet and single jewel for the majority of your stat allocation. And this sole reason is why SPvP has such a pathetic amount of build diversity and such a stale meta.
Arenanet’s excuse, and yes I do mean excuse, because as far as I can see, they are protecting their money maker, PvE. Which is done by not having the same stat system in place as they do PvE, which if that were the case, it might likely make PvE’ers feel as though they are grinding their gear for “no reason” when they could simply go into SPvP and have their full build and then PvP with it and never set foot in PvE for that reason cough cough … (See where this is going? Fewer PvE’ers / cosmetic crap needed by them = less micro transactions = less money for Arenanet! Greed in such a way has pretty much always ruined great things, such as certain aspects of this game.)
Anyway this lame excuse is that they don’t want to “overwhelm” players with too many choices. (Seriously … ?) Well gee, if I wasn’t a complete idiot, I’d assume that maybe less choices meant less build variety because there’s not enough to go around to really support more builds and thus build diversity! … … … Oh wait, I’m not an idiot … I think I have it the other way around.