Guild Wars 2

Sorry but without them specialization, your bringing a spoon to a gun fight.

Is there even any builds even remotely equally effective as any of the elite spec classes?

Maebye classic signet necro, nothing else on my mind :-(

Welcome to pay to win.

Signet Necro is only one I can think of. And even then there are better specs for Necro.

Classic options for low to mid sPvP games:

Necro (signet)
Guardian (meditation, burn)
Elementalist (staff support)

These are still powerful builds… I don’t know any other because I don’t play other classic specs often or at all.

Burn Guard is horrible in the current meta. You will be up against classes that pack the same offensive potential but can bring far more defensive skills.

As for builds that work in the current meta:
Signet Necro (more of a meta call than strong on its own merit. The amount of corruption and boon strips at your disposal match up well against tempests and revenants)
Celestial Staff Ele (probably the most versatile and most reliable non-HoT build, but the sustain certainly isn’t as smooth as the sustain of a tempest)
Greataxe Warrior (wrecks faces incredibly fast)

Builds, you can make work if you are really good at the class:
S/D Thief (As there is hardly any thieves in the meta, this build will be able to out-rotate anything the opponents can field)
Soldier Rifle Engi (I simply can’t make it work but that’s simply down to me being a horrible engi player)

naphack.9346:

S/D Thief (As there is hardly any thieves in the meta, this build will be able to out-rotate anything the opponents can field)

you need expansion to make this work.

Vanilla ele is still ok if you are good I think.

I’ve been carrying games hard with my vanilla ele. I was going to buy HoT just to be effective in pvp, but I don’t think I need to…

Too all you free players out there.

I expect you to rank up and have fun like everyone else. Sorry some people care about pips more then your feelings, but kitten them, play the class you like.

I hope you can find some enjoyment in this sea of bad attitudes and eventually want to purchase HOT to become more competitive.

I’d recommend cele dd ele. I’m surprisingly better with it than a power herald