Guild Wars 2

I quit playing this game in the beginning months of the year after frustrations over the competitive progression systems and being farmed by premades. Heard about solo/duo-only queue for season five, and I reinstalled immediately.

I’m reviewing MetaBattle builds and tbh it hasn’t changed much since I last played in the beginning weeks of season two or three. Is this accurate? Is stacking gyros with the hammer still our best build?

Sadly yes…..

Core engi is still good to run, but nothing comparable to scrapper hammer, this is still our bes build

Ivantreil.3092:

Sadly yes…..

Core engi is still good to run, but nothing comparable to scrapper hammer, this is still our bes build

Hm. Shame.

Okay thanks.

There has been some recent “balance”, so the MB builds ARE a bit outdated. Just not enough to make any relevant change to most builds.

Ardid.7203:

There has been some recent “balance”, so the MB builds ARE a bit outdated. Just not enough to make any relevant change to most builds.

Could you be more specific?

Some scrapper builds in Metabattle still mention gyros applying daze. This doesn’t affect such builds in any major way, but is worth taking on account.

Metabattle consists only of from “Esport” copied Premade builds. In this respect, Metabattle is irrelvant for the next season, unless they release solo/duo builds.

And sadly enough, nobody in the community has the knowledge/time/other excuse here to really put out a decent alternative to metabattle, so really it’s all we have. Forums are notoriously barren, especially in regards to discussing what works/what doesn’t. Subreddits are even more so less populated.

I suppose I really don’t get how the game can have this many players but so few theorycrafters and build makers. Is it a fault of anet for making very few possible viable builds for all the classes? Is it our fault for being lazy? Who the hell knows.

Sazdek.6830:

And sadly enough, nobody in the community has the knowledge/time/other excuse here to really put out a decent alternative to metabattle, so really it’s all we have. Forums are notoriously barren, especially in regards to discussing what works/what doesn’t. Subreddits are even more so less populated.

I suppose I really don’t get how the game can have this many players but so few theorycrafters and build makers. Is it a fault of anet for making very few possible viable builds for all the classes? Is it our fault for being lazy? Who the hell knows.

Even if someone was to put decent effort into a build, most won’t play it. Most would rather play what’s on metabattle because that’s what the champs play.

That’s not to say that there aren’t Engi’s out there who would gladly buck the trend but, right now I don’t think there’s any significant way to buck the trend.

Dirame.8521:

Sazdek.6830:

And sadly enough, nobody in the community has the knowledge/time/other excuse here to really put out a decent alternative to metabattle, so really it’s all we have. Forums are notoriously barren, especially in regards to discussing what works/what doesn’t. Subreddits are even more so less populated.

I suppose I really don’t get how the game can have this many players but so few theorycrafters and build makers. Is it a fault of anet for making very few possible viable builds for all the classes? Is it our fault for being lazy? Who the hell knows.

Even if someone was to put decent effort into a build, most won’t play it. Most would rather play what’s on metabattle because that’s what the champs play.

That’s not to say that there aren’t Engi’s out there who would gladly buck the trend but, right now I don’t think there’s any significant way to buck the trend.

Pretty much, and i see it positive and negative as well.

Negative in the part that it doesn’t promote build variety and people get blinded with only meta options, but positive in the fact that the Surprise factor is always around these builds, and will destroy people that only knows to fight meta builds.

The build i published a few days ago is an example of this, actually, i didnt want it to share it because the suprise factor would be lost, but i tought it would be selfish to keep this fun build only for me.

Anyway, I dont think people are so interested in try new stuff, i mean, its off-season and i still find rare to see an opponent with a non-meta build, prob i have seen 7 people so far.

Common people who like to create their own builds usually don’t get into PvP. They see the meta builds as unbeatable, and are mostly right.

Ardid.7203:

Common people who like to create their own builds usually don’t get into PvP. They see the meta builds as unbeatable, and are mostly right.

If i was a casual player who doesnt know a lot of pvp but for some reason tries pvp one day, i think the first thing i would do is get a meta build and roll with that, i doubt that what new people do first is a custom build (unless you are f2p)

Ivantreil.3092:

Ardid.7203:

Common people who like to create their own builds usually don’t get into PvP. They see the meta builds as unbeatable, and are mostly right.

If i was a casual player who doesnt know a lot of pvp but for some reason tries pvp one day, i think the first thing i would do is get a meta build and roll with that, i doubt that what new people do first is a custom build (unless you are f2p)

That’s why I said “Common people who like to create their own builds”. Most people don’t bother about that.

Sazdek.6830:

…. Forums are notoriously barren, especially in regards to discussing what works/what doesn’t. Subreddits are even more so less populated.

I suppose I really don’t get how the game can have this many players…….

lol. This post is amazing.

Hint: you may need a new assumption to test.

No i don’t think it is updated. I find , after last patches, mender scrapper better than paladin .

Ardid.7203:

Some scrapper builds in Metabattle still mention gyros applying daze. This doesn’t affect such builds in any major way, but is worth taking on account.

This is the only balance change engineers have gotten in literally over six months?

Phineas Poe.3018:

Ardid.7203:

Some scrapper builds in Metabattle still mention gyros applying daze. This doesn’t affect such builds in any major way, but is worth taking on account.

This is the only balance change engineers have gotten in literally over six months?

Now you get the frustation that we have been dealing with the recent patches, insignificant buffs, some painful nerfs, and we still use the same kitten despite of the nerfs

Sazdek.6830:

I suppose I really don’t get how the game can have this many players but so few theorycrafters and build makers. Is it a fault of anet for making very few possible viable builds for all the classes? Is it our fault for being lazy? Who the hell knows.

The answer to your question is both simple and complex. The simple answer is: this game isn’t hard. The more complex answer is: this game just hasn’t changed much mechanically over its life span. I would think the former is kind of obvious, but the latter might require some exposition on my part. I know this thread is about PvP builds, but I think the status quo is best represented by how GW2 has handled its PvE metagame.

When Guild Wars 2 came out in 2012, I was an avid theorycrafter. I was blown away by the ability to change skills at will outside of combat, and while the talent point system was pretty cumbersome to use, it was very cheap to reset your talents as needed. It made Guild Wars 2, similar to its predecessor, a pretty fun game to theorycraft.

Unfortunately, it became kind of obvious early on that the Grenade Kit was the by-and-large best option for the engineer. And this hasn’t really changed over the past four years; if anything, the meta has only further reinforced the GK as a necessary utility slot, and has by extension compartmentalized a pretty diversifiable class like the engineer into a singular role of stacking vulnerability.

We had a few months in time when we were also brought to dungeons and fractals for might stacking, but now pretty much anybody can do it and there’s no point to care about it.

So as a theorycrafter, I had little left to do. I made an FT/EG build. I made a Bomb Kit build. I made a static discharge build. But in the end none of them compared to the GK, and in meaningful content it just felt ridiculous running anything else. So I, and many other theorycrafters and guide-writers, just stopped. There was nothing to theorize or talk about, except to make recommendations to improve the other kits.

We made multiple suggestions to make the FT, BK, and EG better. Some of them, like Flame Blast becoming a blast finisher, were eventually added years later. Most of them were ignored. Eventually I got bored of the game and quit to play ArcheAge, like many people.

I still come back to this game occasionally, and I did when Heart of Thorns was announced and released, but even with the new expansion nothing really changed. I’m still spamming grenades on my engineer, even if the rotation calls for a more complex playstyle. As you can imagine I eventually got bored again and quit. I’ve since spent my time working through my Steam backlog I’ve neglected over the past few years while playing Black Desert and even a stint with World of Warcraft: Legion.

The truth of the matter is that the meta has barely changed over four-plus years to warrant any serious re-examination, and that there have been no mechanical changes to Guild Wars 2 that functionally affect the engineer profession in any significant way. There is no theorycraft community because there simply isn’t a need for one.

We’ve known from day one what the “best” build was, and it revolved around grenades. The engineer has always revolved around it, and will likely forever revolve around it.