Guild Wars 2

People are over it Arena Net. I have been actively involved in the GvG scene for a very long time now and I can’t remember the last time there was this few of guilds involved in the scene. So where have things gone wrong? This is a question I’ve thought about for a good while now and wanted to address my concerns.

To start, lets take a look at Season 1 of SPvP ater HoT came out. This season was nicknamed “The Bunker Meta” and it was so horribly boring that the main culprits, Durability Runes and high toughness amulets, were removed. Heres the issue, while this helped out SPvP, these have remained in WvW. WvW is STILL stuck in that season 1 bunker meta because instead of actually fixing the issues from SPvP, you guys took the lazy approach and just removed them from the game mode. Guilds are stacking Damage Mitigation, Healing, Resistance, and Boon Duration and essentially creating a group that is unkillable unless you single target. Do I really need to explain why groups of 20+ single targeting each other is incredibly boring? To make things even worse, many guilds have begun running Mercy Runes on their guards so the moment someone is downed, they are instantly rezzed back up.

Your game mode isn’t dying because of PPT mechanics, its dying because there isn’t too much fun to be had any more when it comes to fighting.

Now I’m not one to complain without providing at least ideas to help fix the issues. So below are listed what I think could help:

-All boon duration is cut in half in WvW.
-Damage mitigation doesn’t stack in any way. If you have 10% damage mitigation food on, but you have protection giving you 33%, instead of the 10% stacking with the 33%, it picks the highest damage mitigation available. So if you have 10% damage mitigation food, but you have protection, the protection overrides the damage mitigation food giving you 33% damage mitigation.
-Durability 4 needs to be changed. Even if boon duration in WvW were to be cut in half, this is still permanent protection and regeneration with the stats guilds are running at the moment. Any passive effect that gives a 5 man group permanent protection is incredibly unhealthy for the game
-Great Dwarf Elite needs a slight increase in energy cost. At the moment, you can just fire off Great Dwarf whenever you switch legends to it. People should have to sit in dwarf for at least a few seconds before they are able to use it. Even just an increase from 50 to 60 would be nice.

This would be a start. I really hope that this is taken seriously. It’s nice to see that Arena Net is taking an interest in fixing issues in WvW right now, but it feels like you guys are looking at the tiny things to improve the mode and not the major issues.

“instead of actually fixing the issues from SPvP, you guys took the lazy approach and just removed them from the game mode”

As far as I understand, since the sPvP and balance teams are two different teams, the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available. Removing that rune from sPvP wasn’t done by the balance team. I wouldn’t call the sPvP team lazy, but responsive.

That said, we need the balance team to look into the issue.

puts fingers in ears
LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA
WHAT?
CAN’T HEAR YOU!

Someone who likes power isn’t feeling useful anymore o.o

Get over it and come cry in the corner with the rest of us power mongrels.

Its like the Nuk$ weapons stockpile you owned turned to kittens and rainbows. While the guy who build the giant trench bunker is jogging around doing the snoopy dance. Aka the opposite of ww2.

Chaba.5410:

As far as I understand, since the sPvP and balance teams are two different teams, the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available. Removing that rune from sPvP wasn’t done by the balance team. I wouldn’t call the sPvP team lazy, but responsive.

This is probably true but doesn’t change the overall consideration. The WvW team can learn from sPvP changes. If anything WvW amplifies sPvP meta so changes made in sPvP that are well received should be adopted in some fashion in WvW.

Most of his points are valid and his solutions workable.

thankitten.6307:

People are over it Arena Net. I have been actively involved in the GvG scene for a very long time now and I can’t remember the last time there was this few of guilds involved in the scene. So where have things gone wrong? This is a question I’ve thought about for a good while now and wanted to address my concerns.

To start, lets take a look at Season 1 of SPvP ater HoT came out. This season was nicknamed “The Bunker Meta” and it was so horribly boring that the main culprits, Durability Runes and high toughness amulets, were removed. Heres the issue, while this helped out SPvP, these have remained in WvW. WvW is STILL stuck in that season 1 bunker meta because instead of actually fixing the issues from SPvP, you guys took the lazy approach and just removed them from the game mode. Guilds are stacking Damage Mitigation, Healing, Resistance, and Boon Duration and essentially creating a group that is unkillable unless you single target. Do I really need to explain why groups of 20+ single targeting each other is incredibly boring? To make things even worse, many guilds have begun running Mercy Runes on their guards so the moment someone is downed, they are instantly rezzed back up.

Your game mode isn’t dying because of PPT mechanics, its dying because there isn’t too much fun to be had any more when it comes to fighting.

Now I’m not one to complain without providing at least ideas to help fix the issues. So below are listed what I think could help:

-All boon duration is cut in half in WvW.
-Damage mitigation doesn’t stack in any way. If you have 10% damage mitigation food on, but you have protection giving you 33%, instead of the 10% stacking with the 33%, it picks the highest damage mitigation available. So if you have 10% damage mitigation food, but you have protection, the protection overrides the damage mitigation food giving you 33% damage mitigation.
-Durability 4 needs to be changed. Even if boon duration in WvW were to be cut in half, this is still permanent protection and regeneration with the stats guilds are running at the moment. Any passive effect that gives a 5 man group permanent protection is incredibly unhealthy for the game
-Great Dwarf Elite needs a slight increase in energy cost. At the moment, you can just fire off Great Dwarf whenever you switch legends to it. People should have to sit in dwarf for at least a few seconds before they are able to use it. Even just an increase from 50 to 60 would be nice.

This would be a start. I really hope that this is taken seriously. It’s nice to see that Arena Net is taking an interest in fixing issues in WvW right now, but it feels like you guys are looking at the tiny things to improve the mode and not the major issues.

You listed nothing that would improve wvw. Sorry.

Chaba.5410:

“instead of actually fixing the issues from SPvP, you guys took the lazy approach and just removed them from the game mode”

As far as I understand, since the sPvP and balance teams are two different teams, the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available. Removing that rune from sPvP wasn’t done by the balance team. I wouldn’t call the sPvP team lazy, but responsive.

That said, we need the balance team to look into the issue.

QFT

Jana.6831:

Chaba.5410:

“instead of actually fixing the issues from SPvP, you guys took the lazy approach and just removed them from the game mode”

As far as I understand, since the sPvP and balance teams are two different teams, the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available. Removing that rune from sPvP wasn’t done by the balance team. I wouldn’t call the sPvP team lazy, but responsive.

That said, we need the balance team to look into the issue.

QFT

This is the truth of it, though, at least in this respect.

Balance team unfortunately has the reigns on everything that actually matters and for whatever reason is too afraid to go deleting game-breaking content because people will whine, despite the current content breaking the game and causing many to just silently leave. The sPvP and WvW teams have no control over the in-game content without trying to break the thick-headed-ness of the rest of the game.

Cerby.1069:

Someone who likes power isn’t feeling useful anymore o.o

Get over it and come cry in the corner with the rest of us power mongrels.

Its like the Nuk$ weapons stockpile you owned turned to kittens and rainbows. While the guy who build the giant trench bunker is jogging around doing the snoopy dance. Aka the opposite of ww2.

Actually in large scale combat, no one uses condition damage because most guilds have permanent resistance through durability runes and pain absorption + boon duration.

Also I would ask that anyone that disagrees with anything in this post, come up with an alternative because just complaining doesn’t get us anywhere. We need solutions.

It also hadn’t occurred to me that the balance teams are different for SPvP and WvW since they are both PvP modes but I guess that would make sense.

Straegen.2938:

Chaba.5410:

As far as I understand, since the sPvP and balance teams are two different teams, the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available. Removing that rune from sPvP wasn’t done by the balance team. I wouldn’t call the sPvP team lazy, but responsive.

This is probably true but doesn’t change the overall consideration. The WvW team can learn from sPvP changes. If anything WvW amplifies sPvP meta so changes made in sPvP that are well received should be adopted in some fashion in WvW.

Most of his points are valid and his solutions workable.

I doubt very much that the WvW team has control over builds in the manner the sPvP team has.

DeceiverX.8361:

This is the truth of it, though, at least in this respect.

Balance team unfortunately has the reigns on everything that actually matters and for whatever reason is too afraid to go deleting game-breaking content because people will whine, despite the current content breaking the game and causing many to just silently leave. The sPvP and WvW teams have no control over the in-game content without trying to break the thick-headed-ness of the rest of the game.

Don’t tempt me to post another QFT – I feel bad for the first one alone.
I was commander on DS today as a vanilla D/D thief with wonky BS thanks to the stealth attack cooldown – I didn’t die once and well people healed me but even that isn’t neccessary as no one is doing that in wvw as well and I never have boons from anyone.
I really have no idea why all this HoT powercreep “is needed”.

I fell from one edge while using withdraw though, but my squad just carried on circeling

Chaba.5410:

Straegen.2938:

Chaba.5410:

As far as I understand, since the sPvP and balance teams are two different teams, the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available. Removing that rune from sPvP wasn’t done by the balance team. I wouldn’t call the sPvP team lazy, but responsive.

This is probably true but doesn’t change the overall consideration. The WvW team can learn from sPvP changes. If anything WvW amplifies sPvP meta so changes made in sPvP that are well received should be adopted in some fashion in WvW.

Most of his points are valid and his solutions workable.

I doubt very much that the WvW team has control over builds in the manner the sPvP team has.

They probably dont but the PvP dev basically wrote a thread on the PvP forum saying they have no control over balance. I mean im currently on a server match where there is 9 servers and zergs are actually avoiding each other because once face to face the fights will go on for a very long time.

Everyone needs to truly face it, the game has no balance to it anymore in 1 vs 1.(fights can go on forever) and in 5 vs 5 PvP teams and in WvW.

Think about this, the Pro League had a game go the full 15 minutes after all the recent changes and killing the most defensive build in the game. (ele) From the previous seasons and in this game neither team scored over 400 pts.

LOL i honestly feel like the robot guy from Grandma’s Boy is the HOT balance guy and only in GW2 no one can challenge him so he literally sits on peoples faces.

thankitten.6307:

People are over it Arena Net. I have been actively involved in the GvG scene for a very long time now and I can’t remember the last time there was this few of guilds involved in the scene. So where have things gone wrong? This is a question I’ve thought about for a good while now and wanted to address my concerns.

To start, lets take a look at Season 1 of SPvP ater HoT came out. This season was nicknamed “The Bunker Meta” and it was so horribly boring that the main culprits, Durability Runes and high toughness amulets, were removed. Heres the issue, while this helped out SPvP, these have remained in WvW. WvW is STILL stuck in that season 1 bunker meta because instead of actually fixing the issues from SPvP, you guys took the lazy approach and just removed them from the game mode. Guilds are stacking Damage Mitigation, Healing, Resistance, and Boon Duration and essentially creating a group that is unkillable unless you single target. Do I really need to explain why groups of 20+ single targeting each other is incredibly boring? To make things even worse, many guilds have begun running Mercy Runes on their guards so the moment someone is downed, they are instantly rezzed back up.

Your game mode isn’t dying because of PPT mechanics, its dying because there isn’t too much fun to be had any more when it comes to fighting.

Now I’m not one to complain without providing at least ideas to help fix the issues. So below are listed what I think could help:

-All boon duration is cut in half in WvW.
-Damage mitigation doesn’t stack in any way. If you have 10% damage mitigation food on, but you have protection giving you 33%, instead of the 10% stacking with the 33%, it picks the highest damage mitigation available. So if you have 10% damage mitigation food, but you have protection, the protection overrides the damage mitigation food giving you 33% damage mitigation.
-Durability 4 needs to be changed. Even if boon duration in WvW were to be cut in half, this is still permanent protection and regeneration with the stats guilds are running at the moment. Any passive effect that gives a 5 man group permanent protection is incredibly unhealthy for the game
-Great Dwarf Elite needs a slight increase in energy cost. At the moment, you can just fire off Great Dwarf whenever you switch legends to it. People should have to sit in dwarf for at least a few seconds before they are able to use it. Even just an increase from 50 to 60 would be nice.

This would be a start. I really hope that this is taken seriously. It’s nice to see that Arena Net is taking an interest in fixing issues in WvW right now, but it feels like you guys are looking at the tiny things to improve the mode and not the major issues.

In regards to boon duration, what they need to do is reformulate how many sources of each boon and the duration of a boon (when received from another player) can be stacked. Being able to stack up over a minute or more of protection, quickness, and dare I say resistance much as we need it because I hate that condi garbage more then anyone, is not healthy for the gamemode. But also other factors must accompany this change, changes to condition damage, power creep, and siege wars which make these builds so attractive.

They cannot simply override damage mitigation as you suggested because it would simply screw up to many builds and functions, for example Rite of the Great Dwarf and and its related trait would conflict with a player using protection, it would simply cause to many problems for you and allies. It could also make certain damage reduction foods essentially useless as it would be overridden anytime protection is placed on you. However in regards to your suggestion of removing stacking of damage mitigation I would suggest rather a cap, lets say just for example 50% with some exceptions.

I disagree that durability runes need to be changed because you are looking at it from the point of view of a group using it, and that is simply unfair to individual players who use it because they have a personal preference for it. The rune itself only offers a few seconds of those boons, its a chance effect, and you have to be hit for them to take effect, and they have a 20 second cooldown. As I suggested earlier, capping boons by source and duration from when received from other players is a better alternative then outright nerfing runes that will screw over a lot of builds and require people to rework their builds.

With Rite of the Great Dwarf, what they could do is make the trait only work on the individual player instead of allies. So groups cant just double up on that skill.

DeceiverX.8361:

Chaba.5410:

“instead of actually fixing the issues from SPvP, you guys took the lazy approach and just removed them from the game mode”

As far as I understand, since the sPvP and balance teams are two different teams, the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available. Removing that rune from sPvP wasn’t done by the balance team. I wouldn’t call the sPvP team lazy, but responsive.

That said, we need the balance team to look into the issue.

This is the truth of it, though, at least in this respect.

Balance team unfortunately has the reigns on everything that actually matters and for whatever reason is too afraid to go deleting game-breaking content because people will whine, despite the current content breaking the game and causing many to just silently leave. The sPvP and WvW teams have no control over the in-game content without trying to break the thick-headed-ness of the rest of the game.

ANet have dug themselves into kitten two fold.

1) If they nerf elite specs to a reasonable level as to not completely outclass core specs it makes a lot of current HoT content much much more difficult. Some breakbars in raids need a pretty heft CC commitment from classes as well as various support given from elite specs and the damage increase.

So just nerf raids right? Well it’s not that simple. Raids are at a good spot right now, the hardcore have had several months of pushing the limits on them and doing 5 man runs. The more casual or less skilled have managed to persevere enough to get kills and feel they have accomplished something. Nerfing raids will have an outcry from a lot of people because raids were meant to be hard however leaving them at this level while nerfing classes would be disastrous for a lot of parties. It would also further push groups to 1 kind of meta and that it where you’d probably have 1 chrono, 1 rev, 2 PSEA wars, 2 druids and 4 thieves. Thieves would be interchangeable with necros for condi management and eles on large target bosses and that’s it.

2) A lot of the current nerfs to balance elite specs were to core skills/traits. I’m sure you’ve realised this but I explain for others. When another elite spec comes along they either have to design it in a way where they don’t interact with those nerfed skills/traits or they will end up kind of useless where there’s no middle ground. There would also be issues where elite specs overlap where if they continue the current trend you will end up with one elite spec winning out and the other being garbage.

If they had instead addressed the elite spec and altered the problem at that level then there wouldn’t be a problem with elite specs being added on, but they didn’t.

kdaddy.5431:

Chaba.5410:

Chaba.5410:

the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available.

I doubt very much that the WvW team has control over builds in the manner the sPvP team has.

They probably dont but the PvP dev basically wrote a thread on the PvP forum saying they have no control over balance.

Right. In that thread the dev explained they only have control over what runes/sigils/amulets are available. I don’t believe the WvW devs would even have that level of control. PvE and WvW builds are only separated by the trait screen.

Chaba.5410:

kdaddy.5431:

Chaba.5410:

Chaba.5410:

the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available.

I doubt very much that the WvW team has control over builds in the manner the sPvP team has.

They probably dont but the PvP dev basically wrote a thread on the PvP forum saying they have no control over balance.

Right. In that thread the dev explained they only have control over what runes/sigils/amulets are available. I don’t believe the WvW devs would even have that level of control. PvE and WvW builds are only separated by the trait screen.

Celestial amulet and runes of durability were outright removed from PvP. Sigil of energy was basically nerfed completely in PvP.

Whether those items and other such items deserve the same treatment in WvW is debatable, but you need to consider that.

Right now there’s 2 predominant things: condi (more so with consumables giving +20% or more condition duration) and boon spam (resistance + chrono/ele boon copy , durability runes)

I don’t really agree on nerfing the Rite of the Great Dwarf skill. It requires you to run the Dwarf stance , which means you lose resistance from Mallyx and requires you to auto attack a few seconds after using it due to 0 energy. You’d probably be better off nerfing Versed in Stone traits (mainly the -50% condition damage portion).

There’s minor things that can be implemented such as removing resistance from Durability runes.

Rotteny.8743:

Infusion.7149:

Chaba.5410:

kdaddy.5431:

Chaba.5410:

Chaba.5410:

the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available.

I doubt very much that the WvW team has control over builds in the manner the sPvP team has.

They probably dont but the PvP dev basically wrote a thread on the PvP forum saying they have no control over balance.

Right. In that thread the dev explained they only have control over what runes/sigils/amulets are available. I don’t believe the WvW devs would even have that level of control. PvE and WvW builds are only separated by the trait screen.

Celestial amulet and runes of durability were outright removed from PvP. Sigil of energy was basically nerfed completely in PvP.

Whether those items and other such items deserve the same treatment in WvW is debatable, but you need to consider that.

Because the PvP team can control what you equip in PvP… How would WvW do that if it’s directly tied to the PvE gear? Did you even read the rest of the posts on this thread?

Last I checked nobody runs durability runes , mussels gnashblade, and minstrel’s/nomad’s in PvE? It’s a moot point if changed for WvW reasons then

Infusion.7149:

Chaba.5410:

kdaddy.5431:

Chaba.5410:

Chaba.5410:

the only thing the sPvP team has control over is which sigils/runes/amulets are available.

I doubt very much that the WvW team has control over builds in the manner the sPvP team has.

They probably dont but the PvP dev basically wrote a thread on the PvP forum saying they have no control over balance.

Right. In that thread the dev explained they only have control over what runes/sigils/amulets are available. I don’t believe the WvW devs would even have that level of control. PvE and WvW builds are only separated by the trait screen.

Celestial amulet and runes of durability were outright removed from PvP. Sigil of energy was basically nerfed completely in PvP.

Whether those items and other such items deserve the same treatment in WvW is debatable, but you need to consider that.

Because the PvP team can control what you equip in PvP… How would WvW do that if it’s directly tied to the PvE gear? Did you even read the rest of the posts on this thread?

ANet removes a lot of things that they deem unsuitable for sPvP such as Clerics Amulet which is in no way OP in WvW for example.

It’s not as simple as ‘removing amulets’, in fact it is bad practice to do so since it just hides what is really wrong with the game – poor class balance.

The problem is, the PvP devs only have so much power so they do what they can. WvW is tied to PvE gear so removing stats is not going to be a good idea, they should instead focus on fixing class balance.

thankitten.6307:

Cerby.1069:

Someone who likes power isn’t feeling useful anymore o.o

Get over it and come cry in the corner with the rest of us power mongrels.

Its like the Nuk$ weapons stockpile you owned turned to kittens and rainbows. While the guy who build the giant trench bunker is jogging around doing the snoopy dance. Aka the opposite of ww2.

Actually in large scale combat, no one uses condition damage because most guilds have permanent resistance through durability runes and pain absorption + boon duration.

Also I would ask that anyone that disagrees with anything in this post, come up with an alternative because just complaining doesn’t get us anywhere. We need solutions.

1. noone said anything about condi…..except you, stating the obvious.

2. complaining about it IS the only thing that gets us anywhere. Solutions get u nowhere on these forums…..you must be new here. the forums only benefit to players is that they provide an outlet to vent. you can solve the entire game and it will get u and the game nowhere. infact making the best solution and never having it considered is more likely to cause most people more strife than pleasure.

Get with the meta

Excuse me for probably saying a few obvious things in this, my first post as a newer player to the game.

My experience in WvW has added a lot fun to my game time, but it has also added a unique burden: if I want to survive long enough to contribute to my team in WvW I need to focus my crafting and build to a heavily defensive setup. And if my team wants to survive very long, and win some battles, we need to “min max” our group membership so that all the bases are covered.

I’m all for rewarding the well prepared, but it feels like if you haven’t coordinated something with your team to min max your build composition then you’re “not doing it right” as you try to challenge folks who no longer experience WvW as a real challenge, but rather as a routine mop up. So, not only does fighting seem restrictive to my game time, but I don’t even get the consolation of thinking that “at least my enemies can’t say it was too easy”. I’m afraid they probably do!

I’m not seeing where a hard cap on boon length couldn’t be implemented. Hard cap would be more fair anyway than nerf nerf nerf.

Besides, metas always change and the boonshare meta will change too as something new comes along. Remember when everyone complained about the hammer meta? ANet came along and changed stab and we had a mass exodus of players. What replaced hammer? Pirate ship! Anyone want to go back to pirate ship?

Kaiser.9873:

I’m not seeing where a hard cap on boon length couldn’t be implemented. Hard cap would be more fair anyway than nerf nerf nerf.

Besides, metas always change and the boonshare meta will change too as something new comes along. Remember when everyone complained about the hammer meta? ANet came along and changed stab and we had a mass exodus of players. What replaced hammer? Pirate ship! Anyone want to go back to pirate ship?

Obviously melee don’t want pirate ship, but the boons meta is worse than hammer meta ever was. But whatever, y’all melee can run around in circles through everything till everyone gets bored and leaves.

Kaiser.9873:

Remember when everyone complained about the hammer meta?

No…

apharma.3741:

ANet have dug themselves into kitten two fold.

1) If they nerf elite specs to a reasonable level as to not completely outclass core specs it makes a lot of current HoT content much much more difficult. Some breakbars in raids need a pretty heft CC commitment from classes as well as various support given from elite specs and the damage increase.

So just nerf raids right? Well it’s not that simple. Raids are at a good spot right now, the hardcore have had several months of pushing the limits on them and doing 5 man runs. The more casual or less skilled have managed to persevere enough to get kills and feel they have accomplished something. Nerfing raids will have an outcry from a lot of people because raids were meant to be hard however leaving them at this level while nerfing classes would be disastrous for a lot of parties. It would also further push groups to 1 kind of meta and that it where you’d probably have 1 chrono, 1 rev, 2 PSEA wars, 2 druids and 4 thieves. Thieves would be interchangeable with necros for condi management and eles on large target bosses and that’s it.

2) A lot of the current nerfs to balance elite specs were to core skills/traits. I’m sure you’ve realised this but I explain for others. When another elite spec comes along they either have to design it in a way where they don’t interact with those nerfed skills/traits or they will end up kind of useless where there’s no middle ground. There would also be issues where elite specs overlap where if they continue the current trend you will end up with one elite spec winning out and the other being garbage.

If they had instead addressed the elite spec and altered the problem at that level then there wouldn’t be a problem with elite specs being added on, but they didn’t.

It’s a two-fold process, though. They can afford to nerf raids and break bars to correlate nicely to any elite spec nerfs. The only reason thieves would become such an important aspect of raids is because they buffed thief DPS by over 30% to match the powercreep from HoT, since DH was out-damaging it prior solely on trap damage. The class was kick-on-join and since the devs pay attention to PvE, they made the easiest and laziest change they could in spite of the rest of the game by just buffing thief AA damage by 30 to 40%. I was and still am opposed to this change because it solved nothing and ultimately masked a real, definitive problem.

The simple matter is ANet doesn’t want to nerf the elite specs. They know at the end of the day that’s what sold the expansion. PvP and WvW losses attributed to it will either cause free players to leave or generate more expansion sales. Financially, ANet’s not too happy with the post-HoT outcome, so they’re going to try and monetize wherever they can. HoT content is widely not well-received, with elites being the expansion’s saving grace.

And that’s one of the fundamental flaws of the elite spec system: overlapping trait configurations or class roles without paying very strict attention to balance is inherently a bad idea. There will always be an optimum in something. Always. There was/is in the berserker meta, despite it not being necessary. It’s not that other things aren’t good, it’s just that they’re not necessarily the best, and that alone makes people freak out for whatever reason. No game will ever be perfectly balanced, and that’s a fact either people need to realize, or go back to playing mathematically unsolvable ones to the negative infinite magnitude, or random-victor ones Rock Paper Scissors. That said, there is a massive difference between perfect balance and the state of relative balance, often identifiable as effective yields within the scope of diverse play. Basically, the more different configurations which can achieve a set benchmark of performance within a certain range of each other, the better. GW2 fails pretty miserably in this area at most levels of play and most scenarios, and quite honestly many make-or-break factors in performance are coming from un-fun mechanics which need to be evaluated when considering profitability.

The sad fact that the profession balance team is the only factor which contributes to what we get in this area is still a truth which ANet has confirmed itself. It’s silly, because those in other departments will have much better ideas or even quantitative or qualitative data of the numbers behind diverse play and their effective yields due to their intrinsic familiarity with their own gameplay systems.