Guild Wars 2

Wouldn’t spectator affect build diversity since a lot of people will simply chose to copy the builds of top tier players instead of making, tweaking their own ?

also, wouldn’t this unbalance things if everyone start using the strongest builds top tier players spent lots of hours crafting on their own. personally I’ve played with this high tier Mesmer who curtain pulls and somehow 1 shots people before they have a chance to get up. wouldn’t it be unbalancing if everyone started running that? it would be like the HGH, people were given easy acess to this strong build and now most players only run this build.

I know you can turn spectator off on custom arena, but how about on tourneys? or custom events held by players/guilds, where they would obviously grant access to spectators but might not want their team builds being leaked.

It might improve build diversity because it will allow ANET to observe which builds dominate and why, making balancing much easier for them.

Also, watching someone use a build will allow players to develop counter-builds. Right now there’s a lot of guess-work that goes into developing a counter-build since it’s not always clear what traits/stat setup people are using.

just because there are people running poor builds doesnt mean there is diversity. and i dont see the problem of copying builds really. its not like a property of you

@Kharr.5746
you’re right about both things, I didn’t think about that but the only problem i see, if a build becomes popular too quick, it will be harder to nerf because it would upset a larget player base as well as nerfs might happen alot more often.

idk, maybe i’m just traumatized by that mesmer hahaha, 1 shot everytime! even our bunkers and eles were getting slapped by him, at the same time haha

@ahuba.6430
that’s not what i mean :P wouldnt want people running poor builds, thats not fun but sometimes you see someone running and amazing build, and usually they won’t share, so the only option is for you to try to make it yourself, and in the process play around, tweak if, modify it, sometimes you come up with the same build or even a different one as well as discover new skills/traits that you found useful but wouldn’t had given them a chance otherwise.

what diversity

The first step to creating a healthy, competitive PvP community to act as the foundation for e-sports is education. Everything is about education – to transform the casual player into a competitive one.

We see this in League of Legends, too, in the form of public mastery and rune pages, match histories showing item builds, and of course streaming. Competitive players do not need to concern themselves with secrets, because true skill relies on exceptional gameplay from the player, rather than on the ignorance of his opponents.

People already just mimic.

google.3709:

@Kharr.5746
you’re right about both things, I didn’t think about that but the only problem i see, if a build becomes popular too quick, it will be harder to nerf because it would upset a larget player base as well as nerfs might happen alot more often.

idk, maybe i’m just traumatized by that mesmer hahaha, 1 shot everytime! even our bunkers and eles were getting slapped by him, at the same time haha

@ahuba.6430
that’s not what i mean :P wouldnt want people running poor builds, thats not fun but sometimes you see someone running and amazing build, and usually they won’t share, so the only option is for you to try to make it yourself, and in the process play around, tweak if, modify it, sometimes you come up with the same build or even a different one as well as discover new skills/traits that you found useful but wouldn’t had given them a chance otherwise.

Now imagine if you could spectate that mesmer and see how he was doing it.. and learned what attacks you needed to dodge in order to negate the burst

Aren’t people just copying the same builds anyway without spectator mode?

Not sure if OP, knows about the forums.

Anyways, there is this thing called forums and on the forums there is something called profession thread. And under professional thread, you can find all sorts of different builds. Also there is this thing called skill builders that allows one to copy a build. I just wanted you to know, it would be our little secret.

@Kharr.5746 haha i tried, unless you managed to dodge the curtain people just kept dying!

@Interpret Interrupt.3824 That’s what i mean, people try, tweak etc, but generally don’t even up being the same. but at least the player tried different skills/traits the normally wouldn’t have and actually make their own build.

@silvermember.8941 yes, i do know about the forums but not all top players share their builds on them, and when you fight them. you notice they are not using the same meta builds everyone uses on hot joint and such.

lets not tell people that there are computers out there, so some still use pens and typewriters to do their work.

telling everyone there are computers will kill diversity in the written word.

If everyone had the same ability with words, we’d all be publish authors. but that’s not the case, so I guess we need a feature to peek into their brain, rather than come up with stuff on own.

For example: If there is D/D Ele why try anything else ? also, if anyone runs something different he will get called names :P. try to solo join with a staff, and see how warm and welcoming your teammates are..

But idk maybe i’m just tripping. if everyone runs the same thing, it will all come down to actual skill, which might end up being a good thing

Devs have said you can set yourself to hide your build so obsers can’t see what you’re running. IMO this is a silly thing to do, and just makes you look insecure about your abilities.

RE: build diversity,
Build diversity is not something that can happen from players, it must happen from devs. Players find the best builds possible and use those. If you are not using the best build possible, you are not being competitive. The devs need to bring other builds up to par (or nerf) to increase the potential for build diversity. Spectator mode only makes this optimization to best build(s) faster. It is a way to educate players as to what are likely the best builds. Any ideas you have about “build diversity” seem naive, as if it were a good thing that many people were playing less-than-best custom builds out of ignorance instead of choice.

This game is heavily lacking on diversity anyway, So i dont think specmode will change anything. Great example of this is that mesmers have been running with same build for about 7 months now

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

Aren’t people just copying the same builds anyway without spectator mode?

Not even there all just making spike damage or bunker builds.because they don’t know any smart tactics

Nilvio.7941:

This game is heavily lacking on diversity anyway, So i dont think specmode will change anything. Great example of this is that mesmers have been running with same build for about 7 months now

Boon hate will actually add a lot to that.

It’s not all about build…more than 50% is HOW you play it…and you can’t just copy that..a good build doesn’t make you a good player if you don’t know how to play it..

you ever heard about twitch?

It’s not the build alone that makes a player good.

“If you don’t want people looking at your builds, just disable spec mode on your custom.”
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Video-about-Spectator-Mode-and-Custom-Arenas/first#post1922642

that is true for some classes/builds but not for all, like IMO for example i found thief to be an extremely easy class to play even at tourney level as long as you run a decent build. for me at least, it has absolutely nothing to do with skill or how i fight, but rather when to attack. a burst at the right time will usually do the job without even having to engage on a real fight. this might change tho this patch and i hope so, i’ve seem some thief running the S/D build and it’s interesting, it was great mobility making it hard to catch while at the same time dealing heavy consistent dmg, making it an actual fight.

@Empathetic Fighter.2065 wep/skills don’t matter, they are easy to recognize, it’s more about traits/runes/sigils and you usually don’t see those.

but idk tbh i’ll be one of those people peeking at the builds, i’ve been trial and testing and still can’t find that 1 shot burst from that mesmer.. i’m really curious! it looked fun taking down bunkers and ele’s before they got up from veil hahah

Its this way in League of legends, i can see the top players runes/traits….even their item builds. Most players share their builds anyway, or will be revealed at tournaments. Guild wars 2 players also share their builds, and the popular builds get shared around the forums and even new players can learn from them.

But neither of these games are all about what you do before you enter a match, its how you use the tools your given. Two professions with the exact same rune/trait/sigils/gear will not end in a stalemate. One player is going to play better than the other.

Much like most popular E-sports, shooters..rts…moba, and fighters. There is limited to NO pre game customization, yet pros still are at the top. I dont see this as a problem, if anything being able to see what vets are doing allows new players to jump into the game and avoid the many many nub traps offered. Many runes/utilities/traits/sigils etc, are just plain bad or dont work. Letting less skilled or new players see what they should be doing to get over this hump is removing a huge boulder for new players to pass to jump into the action.

And skilled players will always be finding new tweaks to less popular builds to throw off their opponents and unveal new strategies. Its just how these games work. But i dont see it as a problem at all.