I’m finding that as I move up the ranked ladder, power shatter still might be best for the sheer mobility and utility you can offer as a +1 on any point and connecting between far spread objectives.
I would obviously say that Alacrity Bunker is better on an organized team….but its simply not as mobile. Power shatter is especially effective with PUGs that cannot be trusted to cap uncontested points or +1 quickly and effectively (a.k.a. thief players who decide to 1v1 off point when your team is behind).
Furthermore, Bunker gives up a lot of DPS and only tends to scale better in large teamfights or if you already have a point captured – all of which is only more effective in organized, coordinated play rather than with random PUGs.
It also seems like today’s meta encourages sustain-heavy builds that have bunkering qualities (such as reapers, DH, etc.)….I often find myself on a team full of tanks and the team doesn’t deal well with rotations or mobility (especially when the other team is a premade, which is starting to happen very often in ranked….blame poor matchmaking for this).
Yup. I ran a self made tanky condi build and rekt the soloq for 15-0 wins/losses and then it started to get hard, not because i was not able to destroy people 1v1, 1v2 or even 1v3, but because it took some time to do so and you simply can not trust your team mates to win at least equal fights on their own. So i switched back to the power-shatter-like one and play as a Thief. Which feels like a Thief but is way more teamfight friendly on mid points and such. Also, mesmer 1shots are still the best looking ones!
Yup. I ran a self made tanky condi build and rekt the soloq for 15-0 wins/losses and then it started to get hard, not because i was not able to destroy people 1v1, 1v2 or even 1v3, but because it took some time to do so and you simply can not trust your team mates to win at least equal fights on their own. So i switched back to the power-shatter-like one and play as a Thief. Which feels like a Thief but is way more teamfight friendly on mid points and such. Also, mesmer 1shots are still the best looking ones!
Yeah, and more importantly power shatter allows you to run both portal and blink without sacrificing too much. Its not nearly as reliant on utility skills as an Alacrity bunker is.
Traiting for power block allows you to have huge impact with an on-point assault with a double gravity well and GS shatter combo, followed up by tides of time and and blurred frenzy, followed by a cry of frustration. In many cases, this causes almost half of the enemy skills to go on long CD and for them to crumble almost instantaneously.
Now this is obviously not a build that is run very often anymore in ESL or organized play, but for solo queue PUG games it has huge impact.
insp duel chrono shatter is working out pretty good. imo best spec for solo Q. You are almost as tanky as a bunker chrono and still dish out very good damage. 2x moa won so many fights for me as well and much saltyness from people.
Yup. I ran a self made tanky condi build and rekt the soloq for 15-0 wins/losses and then it started to get hard, not because i was not able to destroy people 1v1, 1v2 or even 1v3, but because it took some time to do so and you simply can not trust your team mates to win at least equal fights on their own. So i switched back to the power-shatter-like one and play as a Thief. Which feels like a Thief but is way more teamfight friendly on mid points and such. Also, mesmer 1shots are still the best looking ones!
Is this the condi build that you were convinced was going to become meta, and only you knew about it, so you joined the forums to taunt us with it?
Yup. I ran a self made tanky condi build and rekt the soloq for 15-0 wins/losses and then it started to get hard, not because i was not able to destroy people 1v1, 1v2 or even 1v3, but because it took some time to do so and you simply can not trust your team mates to win at least equal fights on their own. So i switched back to the power-shatter-like one and play as a Thief. Which feels like a Thief but is way more teamfight friendly on mid points and such. Also, mesmer 1shots are still the best looking ones!
Is this the condi build that you were convinced was going to become meta, and only you knew about it, so you joined the forums to taunt us with it?
Yea, well, peeps in Sapphire/Ruby used to shed their tears after every game through private messages.
I get often frustrated with bad rotations when I soloq so I did switch to shatter. But now I’m going through leagues duo-queuing and bunker is immediately better.
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