Guild Wars 2

It’s supposed to be a constructive feedback

This isn’t only about balance. It’s at least 50% because we can’t save our builds, neither the gear.

I’m r41 atm, playing bunker guard, condi nec, HGH engi and mesmer mostly, and the reason why I don’t play other builds on my class isn’t that there aren’t other builds that are working or could work, but that i don’t want to memorise 20 traits, gear and builds.

For example, there are some non-bunker guard builds that do suprisingly good, but noone plays them, because the stereotype is that guardians are all bunkers, and they don’t want to change their builds each hour/day if the team wants a bunker.

I have to have 2 different engineers just to have 2 different builds I play often, and I’m not the only one, for example as far as i know, Teldo is forced to do the same..

Srsly, who would experiment with builds if it takes almost the same time to set back your skills and gear as to invent a build.
And since experiments usually fail, you have to spend a lot of time restoring your original build for your team. And then after you stop the run, team disbands, you can start to experiment again, then restore again, and this circle goes on, this takes away a lot of time and with it, the chance to invent a new meta, or at least slows down the process a lot.

We don’t have too many skills, nothing like GW1, that’s the other 50% of the reasons, but that’s another story.

This is my opinion, and dear Devs, without offending anyone, having plans isn’t enough if we can’t see progress. I’m sure you have lots of great plans, but things seem to happen too slow. Keep up with the good work btw

Take screenshot on ur skill, traits etc and rename it, works for me.
But sure some saves would be nice.

draco.4206:

Take screenshot on ur skill, traits etc and rename it, works for me.
But sure some saves would be nice.

Used to do that but tired of it

err maaa gerrrd srsly? this? srsly? THIS???? is what you come up with concerning this topic?

1.
A build should be the logical result of what works well together and what not – you dont have to memorize anything because logic should always get you to the same conclusion

2.
If you cant even remember a few traits and gear choices you`re probably better off playing with marbles

Ryan,

Actually, the hard part is not “remembering a few traits and gear choices”.

The really skilled players have developed a fast twitch muscle memory of WHAT skill to apply, and in what situation. You also need to know HOW your skills counter all the other classes.

If you only use “a few skills”, then you are not playing at anywhere near the top level.

RaynStargaze.6510:

err maaa gerrrd srsly? this? srsly? THIS???? is what you come up with concerning this topic?

1.
A build should be the logical result of what works well together and what not – you dont have to memorize anything because logic should always get you to the same conclusion

2.
If you cant even remember a few traits and gear choices you`re probably better off playing with marbles

Skills aren’t the problem and you can figure out which traits, runes and sigils to use.

Did you ever play 2 different builds on one of your characters? Have you tried to switch 3-4 times a day? Have you tried this on 3 different chars a day? Nope? I wonder why..

You’re complaining about re-doing traits, runes, weapons, sigils, and amulet? That stuff takes a couple minutes to change and there are multiple websites that can help you archive it. The real issue is what Laserbolt said. Anyone can pull a build from a web posting, but being able to play it well takes time, even if you’ve played it in the past.

The real reasons you don’t see build variety are:
1. Most players don’t like to experiment and just copy what top players are doing. The line of thinking is “if top players are doing it, it must be the best!” and “if you’re not playing that, you’re bad.”
2. This is a team game. Your build needs to fit into a team build where there is a balance of mobility, burst damage, defenses, bunker, etc. Most builds can’t be substituted 1-for-1. So if I had a DPS guardian, how would I fit that into the team? They have better group support than some DPS, but they can’t get around the map quickly. So they don’t pair up well with an offensive thief that can zip across the map.
3. Teams with coordination can beat uncoordinated teams using sub-par builds. It’s hard to tell if a build is good or bad unless you’re facing an equally skilled team.

i play full zerker dps instant medi guard

Some builds just have more tools available than other.

Take a look at phantasm vs. shatter mesmer for example.
Both have good damage.
But one comes with:
Better Invul (4s, less cooldown)
Boon removal
Better weaponchoices (in tPvP Focus > Pistol; Staff > GS).

HGH vs. other Engis.
Having 20+ stacks of might means higher condi damage and normal weapon damage even with rapid gear.
Seriously, rapid engis have like 3k attack power when running HGH.

…

Certain build in this game are cheesy, and need some of their tools placed into different positions.
Shatter mesmers for example. With some trait placement readjustments, the general shatter build wouldn’t be the best of all worlds, and instead you would have like 3-4 specialised shatter builds.
One for mkittenter with deceptive evasion.
Another one with higher damage with illusionary persona.
A third one with boon removal.
And another one with heal on shatter…

Imo two reason other builds cant be viable are two-fold:
1) Lack of synergy in a given trait line
2) lack of utility in -utility- skills

Eg. The reason cantrip builds are so popular on eles is because of the synergy in the water trait line. With 30 points in water, you can have cantrips grant regen+ vigor, cantrips recharge 20% faster, and applying regen removes a condition. With the obvious synergy there, it’s obvious why most eles go 2-3 cantrips in their utility slots, especially since cantrips also break stun.

Eg. With 30 points in earth, you can get signets recharge 20% and maintain the passive effects of signets after using them. Although this provides decent synergy, the -utility- of signets is severely lacking. None of them break stuns, grant boons (unless also traited in the water tree) or remove conditions actively (unless also traited in the water tree).

TLDR: If anet wants more builds to be viable, they need to make trait lines more synergetic and make more utility skills useful.