Guild Wars 2

So, I stumbled into SPvP last night as I often do. I decided, as I’m having so much fun with power necro in pve, I’d try it in pvp. At first I just clicked in my raid dps build. And it rocked supprisingly hard. So I tweaked a few traits, juggled utility skills to make more sense in pvp… and I found that it really rocks hard. It can blow off the big condition spikes, and it can provide big power spikes to drop an opponent very quickly. Very, very quickly.

I’m sorry condi Rev… was that your burst? 4k, 5k, 5.5k, 6k. Now I’m going to slice your body to bits for life force. Thanks for the battery man! Oh, hello daredevil, knocked all my health out… what’s this? Feared, drop out of shroud, consume conditions, lich form. 11k, 11k. Have a nice day son. Ahhhhh, hello DH trap spammer…. spectral wall, spectral grasp through it, DS, fear back through the wall… 5k, 5k, 5.5k, 6k. Have a nice day.

This build feels powerful, and has a seriously supra sing amount of survivability for a zerker build. It has tons of boon stripping, focus 5, axe and dagger 3. It can soak lethal hits from death magic, and refills life force extremely fast due to spectral skills, and the weapon combos it uses.

A small point I need to make about the axe. If your complaint about the axe is “it does crap damage” you are using it wrong. Axe isn’t for builds that do direct damage with weapons. It’s for filling life force and boon stripping. And same deal with focus.

On your axe/focus weapon set, you use a simple LF building rotation. 4,2,5, auto to build vuln, NOT to do damage. If they have boons, 5,3,4,2, auto.

On the dagger/warhorn weapon set, it’s far more simple. 5, auto. That’s it. Use 2 as an extra heal should you need it. 3 as a boon strip and imob. 4 is an interrupt. Usually I only use this set to 5, auto a downed player to death to refill life force. Also, as the builds only stability is from lich form… don’t bother stomping unless your the second one to the party.

DEATH SHROUD! Your bread and butter. Get in DS. Fear them, auto them to death. Most folk only take a few hits to completely obliterate. The damage numbers are just silly. 3 is your big combo setup. 4 can be used to clear minions and weapon summons, or in large team fights. 2 is only to close range on someone you have just downed to dagger and refill life force. Ignore your 5.

LICH FORM! Better death shroud. 2, for vuln, if they’re not already at 25 stacks… then auto. The damage here is so sick, at 25 might and vuln (which will probably be the case) you can critical for the entire health pool of thieves and guardians… if they didn’t stack vit.

Basically… I love this build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBHbhG2IHN0bjF3grNwhjjfhCm0BwHIfhnudpZxYEsA-TJRBwAUOJAAeCA02fgcZAA

If you play spvp casually, chances are you’re playing at a rank/mmr level where other PvE players & new players play. They’re likely other PvE players, like yourself, just there to do the dailies or capricorn achievements. And they’re there running the most non-PvP builds available because they don’t play enough to notice a difference.

Your build isn’t an “antimeta” build per se, it’s more of an anti-PvE and anti-newplayers build. That build won’t last a couple of seconds once you get higher up in ranks/mmr and start playing with seasoned PvP players. For what you do, I think it’s fine because you’re playing at a low rank and you won’t play enough to get high enough to play against PvP players. You should by all means play what’s fun for you. I just wouldn’t call your build an “antimeta” build. Antimeta should at least be viable at mid to high end.

Contrary to what you stated, you don’t have many corrupt boons access. Note that stripping 3 boons via focus 5 isn’t the same as corrupting 3 boons. True corrupt boons in your build come off axe 3 (which corrupts only 1 boon and targets have to be within 600), and dagger 3, which corrupts 2 boons but on 25sec cooldown and also hindered by the 600 range limit. Both of these attacks can be blocked.

A good power rev will flatline you before you can blink. A good thief will make sure to interrupt your consume conditions via daze, fear, stun. Not to mention you’ll get eaten alive by any meta condi reaper. Your build will absolutely melt with any light condi pressure, and it’s way too glassy to go up against good power builds.

Pretty much berserker necros haven’t been viable in PvP in a very long time. I’m happy to see people try new things, I really am. If you have fun with this build then keep at it. But I just wouldn’t call it antimeta build because it isn’t viable past the beginner level in PvP. And I mean no disrespect at all, zero.

gavyne.6847:

If you play spvp casually, chances are you’re playing at a rank/mmr level where other PvE players & new players play. They’re likely other PvE players, like yourself, just there to do the dailies or capricorn achievements. And they’re there running the most non-PvP builds available because they don’t play enough to notice a difference.

Your build isn’t an “antimeta” build per se, it’s more of an anti-PvE and anti-newplayers build. That build won’t last a couple of seconds once you get higher up in ranks/mmr and start playing with seasoned PvP players. For what you do, I think it’s fine because you’re playing at a low rank and you won’t play enough to get high enough to play against PvP players. You should by all means play what’s fun for you. I just wouldn’t call your build an “antimeta” build. Antimeta should at least be viable at mid to high end.

Contrary to what you stated, you don’t have many corrupt boons access. Note that stripping 3 boons via focus 5 isn’t the same as corrupting 3 boons. True corrupt boons in your build come off axe 3 (which corrupts only 1 boon and targets have to be within 600), and dagger 3, which corrupts 2 boons but on 25sec cooldown and also hindered by the 600 range limit. Both of these attacks can be blocked.

A good power rev will flatline you before you can blink. A good thief will make sure to interrupt your consume conditions via daze, fear, stun. Not to mention you’ll get eaten alive by any meta condi reaper. Your build will absolutely melt with any light condi pressure, and it’s way too glassy to go up against good power builds.

Pretty much berserker necros haven’t been viable in PvP in a very long time. I’m happy to see people try new things, I really am. If you have fun with this build then keep at it. But I just wouldn’t call it antimeta build because it isn’t viable past the beginner level in PvP. And I mean no disrespect at all, zero.

^ That

gavyne.6847:

Pretty much berserker necros haven’t been viable in PvP in a very long time.

Really? I play berserker necro in unranked and some ranked, and I haven’t found it to be bad enough to be considered not viable. Then again, it’s probably just a higher tier thing. just curious.

Have a nice day!

You’ll have to pardon my ignorance then, what exactly is different beyond other player’s twitch reaction speed at high level pvp? I’ve watched endless hours of youtube of top end players, and much of the time I find myself thinking… “why did he do that? wouldn’t that moment have been better served doing X or Y?” or “why that trait choice?” and while I admit that I’m by no means at that level of twitch reactions… when watching the video’s I’ve got all the time in the world to analyze… and it feels like its just ‘faster’ than what I do on a daily basis.

I called this anti-meta, because the top end players tend to use the same 9 (or perhaps 11 if were being generous) builds. Just about 1 per class… and when you see X class, you know it has Y build on it… the counters are all fresh in your mind. If you were good enough to take your build into high end pvp, and do what they are not expecting… they will melt before they have any idea how to deal with it.. because they haven’t spend endless hours saying to themselves “now when i see them pop this move, interrupted with that skill..” and so on. Its a wrench in the works, so to speak.

Isn’t the attitude that no other build is viable just perpetuating an unnecessary stereotype?

Why assume my heal WILL get interrupted? Isn’t it possible that I lock down an enemy with fear to create a window… or start the cast while they are in a dodge-roll?

Some of the reasons that you listed as to why its bad, don’t hold water in my mind.

Can you explain why they do?

Again, I admit that I’m not some legendary pvper with my own youtube channel, but I have been playing since launch, and have more time spent playing necro than any other class… and I have every class leveled and geared.. multiples of my three favorites, just so I don’t have to swap builds. Perhaps that means little… but as a guitar player I can tell you, its not about how fast you hit the same notes as everyone else, but how elegantly you use them.

Help me out here, what am I not seeing?

Or is it just that the community overlords with youtube channels have spoken, and now everyone that visits metabattle have decided power necro is no good?

BrokenGlass.9356:

You’ll have to pardon my ignorance then, what exactly is different beyond other player’s twitch reaction speed at high level pvp? I’ve watched endless hours of youtube of top end players, and much of the time I find myself thinking… “why did he do that? wouldn’t that moment have been better served doing X or Y?” or “why that trait choice?” and while I admit that I’m by no means at that level of twitch reactions… when watching the video’s I’ve got all the time in the world to analyze… and it feels like its just ‘faster’ than what I do on a daily basis.

I called this anti-meta, because the top end players tend to use the same 9 (or perhaps 11 if were being generous) builds. Just about 1 per class… and when you see X class, you know it has Y build on it… the counters are all fresh in your mind. If you were good enough to take your build into high end pvp, and do what they are not expecting… they will melt before they have any idea how to deal with it.. because they haven’t spend endless hours saying to themselves “now when i see them pop this move, interrupted with that skill..” and so on. Its a wrench in the works, so to speak.

Isn’t the attitude that no other build is viable just perpetuating an unnecessary stereotype?

Why assume my heal WILL get interrupted? Isn’t it possible that I lock down an enemy with fear to create a window… or start the cast while they are in a dodge-roll?

Some of the reasons that you listed as to why its bad, don’t hold water in my mind.

Can you explain why they do?

Again, I admit that I’m not some legendary pvper with my own youtube channel, but I have been playing since launch, and have more time spent playing necro than any other class… and I have every class leveled and geared.. multiples of my three favorites, just so I don’t have to swap builds. Perhaps that means little… but as a guitar player I can tell you, its not about how fast you hit the same notes as everyone else, but how elegantly you use them.

Help me out here, what am I not seeing?

Or is it just that the community overlords with youtube channels have spoken, and now everyone that visits metabattle have decided power necro is no good?

Don’t let anyone tell you power necro isn’t great.

But those high-end players can beat your build not because they’ve seen it, but because they know the animations, as well as how to perfectly evade them. They do this or that when they see class X do thing Y because in their experience, they know how to respond so that they can minimize damage to themselves while maximising damage to the enemy. For example, when they see a GS and spectral wall, they’ll think ‘oh, he’s probably about to pull me into it’ and can dodge appropriately.

As for assuming your heal will be interrupted, that is mostly the worst case scenario, but it is quite common, and as a Thief main, I can attest to that. Because almost all classes have some kind of insta-cast or on-demand CC (Head Shot, Test of Faith, Jade Winds, etc). But you are right when you assume to use fear or when they’re dodging. The best time is when they’re channeling.

Hope this helps

BrokenGlass.9356:

You’ll have to pardon my ignorance then, what exactly is different beyond other player’s twitch reaction speed at high level pvp? I’ve watched endless hours of youtube of top end players, and much of the time I find myself thinking… “why did he do that? wouldn’t that moment have been better served doing X or Y?” or “why that trait choice?” and while I admit that I’m by no means at that level of twitch reactions… when watching the video’s I’ve got all the time in the world to analyze… and it feels like its just ‘faster’ than what I do on a daily basis.

I called this anti-meta, because the top end players tend to use the same 9 (or perhaps 11 if were being generous) builds. Just about 1 per class… and when you see X class, you know it has Y build on it… the counters are all fresh in your mind. If you were good enough to take your build into high end pvp, and do what they are not expecting… they will melt before they have any idea how to deal with it.. because they haven’t spend endless hours saying to themselves “now when i see them pop this move, interrupted with that skill..” and so on. Its a wrench in the works, so to speak.

Isn’t the attitude that no other build is viable just perpetuating an unnecessary stereotype?

Why assume my heal WILL get interrupted? Isn’t it possible that I lock down an enemy with fear to create a window… or start the cast while they are in a dodge-roll?

Some of the reasons that you listed as to why its bad, don’t hold water in my mind.

Can you explain why they do?

Again, I admit that I’m not some legendary pvper with my own youtube channel, but I have been playing since launch, and have more time spent playing necro than any other class… and I have every class leveled and geared.. multiples of my three favorites, just so I don’t have to swap builds. Perhaps that means little… but as a guitar player I can tell you, its not about how fast you hit the same notes as everyone else, but how elegantly you use them.

Help me out here, what am I not seeing?

Or is it just that the community overlords with youtube channels have spoken, and now everyone that visits metabattle have decided power necro is no good?

watch this video, and you will understand the difference between actually GOOD players and regular but decent players. Ignore the part that it’s not about necro but you get the point what I’m talking about. I could easily see Noscoc doing the same kind of video about necros.

I follow your point.

I just fail to understand how a player of that skill level would require the builds off metabattle.

I’m not saying my build is the best. Perhaps it’s not. But I doubt that everything is so unbelievably narrowed to an elegant game of rock paper scissors.

Is it really so narrow at that level of play, that a single trait choice can be the difference? A single utility choice? Is it really so limited that the only necro is conditi reaper?

Why is that?

Bad balance?

Or does the community only trust the builds of tournament winners?

Are you saying it is impossible to counter a meta build?

Or that those counters are only available on patch day before they become meta.

BrokenGlass.9356:

I follow your point.

I just fail to understand how a player of that skill level would require the builds off metabattle.

I’m not saying my build is the best. Perhaps it’s not. But I doubt that everything is so unbelievably narrowed to an elegant game of rock paper scissors.

Is it really so narrow at that level of play, that a single trait choice can be the difference? A single utility choice? Is it really so limited that the only necro is conditi reaper?

Why is that?

Bad balance?

Or does the community only trust the builds of tournament winners?

Are you saying it is impossible to counter a meta build?

Or that those counters are only available on patch day before they become meta.

Ok, you clearly did not get my point why I linked the video. Now onto different problem. Don’t read metabattle like it’s the bible. The builds there aren’t always meta and when they are they aren’t meta for all tiers of play, ie. lower skilled players can do well with the metabuilds but in higher skill play you might get rekt on the same build. On some classes sure pros use the metabattle builds because they are simply the best what the class can offer to a team (atleast somewhat, they might change the rune or 1 trait here or there). But the answer to your question why power necro isn’t considered good is that there are multiple classes that are better as power and do every aspect you can do, but better. And that leaves necros with conditions/boon corruptions. I could see a power necro work even in higher tiers of play if you incorporate boon corruptions to your build, which btw you don’t have except axe3. Corruptions are what make necro unique and what other classes don’t offer and that’s why ppl play them in higher tiers.

BrokenGlass.9356:

I follow your point.

I just fail to understand how a player of that skill level would require the builds off metabattle.

I’m not saying my build is the best. Perhaps it’s not. But I doubt that everything is so unbelievably narrowed to an elegant game of rock paper scissors.

Is it really so narrow at that level of play, that a single trait choice can be the difference? A single utility choice? Is it really so limited that the only necro is conditi reaper?

Why is that?

Bad balance?

Or does the community only trust the builds of tournament winners?

Are you saying it is impossible to counter a meta build?

Or that those counters are only available on patch day before they become meta.

Don´t watch those videos, they won´t do you any good. Most people are not on a level where animation cancelling plays any role. GW2 is a game with almost no build diversity unfortunately and therefore yes in a way it is rock paper scissors, but what is rock today may be paper in six months thanks to the ultimate great wisdom of the Anet balance team. So if you want to play at a certain level you have to play certain professions with certain builds. So the question you should ask yourself is, do i really want to dive into the competitive scene or do i just want to have fun.

Here’s the thing with power necros…

I’ve been seeing quite a bit more of them as this season goes on, and I will admit that they seem to not be as much of a free kill at mid… But the thing is, you don’t really have to kill them ASAP because they’re not contributing to their team in an especially dangerous way like a condi-necro does. All they’re focused on is single target burst dps, and with that, they don’t do it as well as the other professions.

I think a lot of the power necro’s survivability comes into play after the first fight when he’s revealed his spec and doesn’t become the number one priority target. Which, again, could definitely equate to being a more fun build for a casual player. I mean, getting trained all day gets annoying and can be frustrating (dr00d entangle spam, thief dazes, etc.)

Unholy sanctuary with a berserker amulet is just essentially bad. In a bit of casual PvP it might be fun to play power necro, but a little higher among the ranks you’ll eventually get destroyed.

Main issue with your build (save being glassy on the “#1 target in teamfights”) is that you have very poor anti-cc measures. 2 stunbreaks out of which one is passive, and both have nasty 40s cooldown, plus the very veeery poor stability on lich just won’t cut it. Double that is you plan to stay ds which can’t get any of the 3 (even passive won’t trigger, as ds prevents hp change while you’re in it, needed to trigger it).

In higher play you’d get destroyed real hard unless someone is providing you some serious stability. And spectral wall will not shield you from projectile attacks, another beloved way to hunt down a necro, especially if you’re a dragon hunter.

Damage wise it sounds awesome, but as i said – cc will wreck you like a freight train.

I am also a mainly pve player who time to time plays pvp, even much more rarely after HoT came out. Power necro was the way I went as well and it has done good first few times but after I started a routine I realised that I either rock or get rolled over, and the primary factor deciding that wasn’t my build as it should be but my teammates instead. That and how skillful other team was too. A build that is good in a favorable setup (good team comp and skills, bad enemy comp and skills) isnt a very good build.

I know that we are represented by condi too much and you may not like the idea of it, but I advice you try it anyway. I find the playstyle similar and with condi you really are playing to your strengths. You still have your bursts, your survival rotations and all. Your life force generation is lower than power, but learning your combos still can allow you to build up fast. If you want to be anti meta or ruin others’ combos, condi does that better than power.

BrokenGlass.9356:

Basically… I love this build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBHbhG2IHN0bjF3grNwhjjfhCm0BwHIfhnudpZxYEsA-TJRBwAUOJAAeCA02fgcZAA

The build is trash (sorry!). It is obvious that you do not have much sPvP experience.

Some tipps for a beginner:
As a necro/reaper (no matter if power or condi) you heavily rely on boon corrupts to debuff your opponents. Otherwise everyone outsustains you with evades, blocks and so on… And I am not talking about vulnerability as your build focuses on that condition. Vulnerability is pretty much the weakest condition in terms of sPvP. Completely useless.

If you run Power, run at least Marauder Amulet, better Paladin and try to apply weakness as much as possible (either by might corruption or the curses traitline). That’s a good start to get some sustain. Then think about Spectral Armor and Flesh Wurm (unfortunately Rise! is no option on base necro).

Also keep in mind that all of your build’s skills (except D/Wh) are extremely clunky to use. Not the best way to start with. Personally I like Axe/Focus as ranged weaponset but it took me some time to get good with it.

Side note: Base Necro sucks due to its lack of stability. Also not having Blighter’s Boon is a disadvantage. I tried the old standard wells power build (which is a lot better than your build) a few months ago. Even that build is not viable anymore.

You want power antimeta?

I have restructured the utilities a bit, after playing the past two nights.

Now I’m using,

Blood is power,
Spectral walk,
Spectral armor.

This gives me an extra stunbreak. Also, a huge might burst… which is especially nice to pop just before going into shroud, or lich form.

I don’t miss the stability. I just kill downed state players rather than worry about the stomp.

As for simply saying that berserker amulet with death magic is bad… I just don’t buy it. I lean on that trait alot. And I find myself showing up to team fights, bring down multiple fools before I’m noticed, and once I am… my life force bar saves my kitten , kills the enemy, and gives me the time to heal back up. But hey, that’s just my firsthand experiance.

As for “you should just play condo necro” I do. I have two necromancers. I played old scool terrormancer at launch, and loved it. When reaper came out, I dug right into it and I do play conditions reaper. Honestly I have more success in this power build than I do as conditi reaper.

And before you just assert that “you must be bad at conditions necro then.” I’m not. Other than this power necro build, it’s easily my best class/build in spvp.

Why is corrupting boons so superior to stripping them? Without condition damage, those condis are useless. As for cc condis, I have them on my bar, and can apply them myself.

If I can strip your defenses, then apply a huge stack of vulnerability (which they won’t waste their cleanse on) then I have a big 25 might stack… and I can multi-critical you at 1200 range…

What’s bad again?

I can kite around, or survive through cc, the vast majority of the time.

Is my experience here a fluke?

It seems like you are passionate about this build… And that’s good! You should play what you like and let the haters hate…!

But can I give two quick suggestions? You should really drop Death Magic for, I dunno, I guess Blood? The thing is, your death magic traits are not giving you very much of a boost. Deadly Strength and other such abilities scale off your base stat, so it doesn’t factor in any toughness that you’re getting from other skills or allies, and you’re not running any base toughness aside from the base base. Unholy Sanctuary’s healing is abysmal (Blood would fulfill this gap even when yer not in shroud) and the auto-shroud will definitely get you killed at least as often as it saves you. I guess the cleansing your getting from Shrouded Removal is really all your utilizing from the whole trait line. I dunno, prolly worth swapping to Blood for the movement speed alone.

Second, you should try out Valkyrie’s Amulet… You say that you like to spend as much time in shroud as you can, and the hp on Valk will let you stay in shroud a lot longer and since you’re already getting 50% crit from Death Perception, it’s not a super huge loss by losing the Precision.

narcx.3570:

It seems like you are passionate about this build… And that’s good! You should play what you like and let the haters hate…!

But can I give two quick suggestions? You should really drop Death Magic for, I dunno, I guess Blood? The thing is, your death magic traits are not giving you very much of a boost. Deadly Strength and other such abilities scale off your base stat, so it doesn’t factor in any toughness that you’re getting from other skills or allies, and you’re not running any base toughness aside from the base base. Unholy Sanctuary’s healing is abysmal (Blood would fulfill this gap even when yer not in shroud) and the auto-shroud will definitely get you killed at least as often as it saves you. I guess the cleansing your getting from Shrouded Removal is really all your utilizing from the whole trait line. I dunno, prolly worth swapping to Blood for the movement speed alone.

Second, you should try out Valkyrie’s Amulet… You say that you like to spend as much time in shroud as you can, and the hp on Valk will let you stay in shroud a lot longer and since you’re already getting 50% crit from Death Perception, it’s not a super huge loss by losing the Precision.

First, I would like to take blood here, honestly. Having the movement speed on dagger makes my second weapon set into a mobility set, which is very nice. However the tier 2 traits are worthless for what I’m doing. Warhorn cool down is nice… but I use that weapon set for downed players, and having an extra interrupt ready sooner is really nice, no doubt… but I have to be way up close to do it, and this build is all about range and kiting (unless I’m eating some fools corpse for life force.). Tier 3 blood, can provide some nice healing for team fights, or life force to stay in shroud for longer, although that draws conditions onto you, and thus forces you to use your heal on exiting to dump conditions.

Death is a linchpin of the build. Shrouded removal is a reliable way to deal with condi pressure, without having to blow the big clear. Deadly strength is 70 power out of shroud, and 140 in shroud… that’s nearly a signet of spite. The other two traits just aren’t worth it, so yes… this trait is a filler. But it does more damage… so why not? The third tier, Unholy Sanctuary never gets you killed, you have to change how you think of shroud. (…and yes the self heal from this trait is abysmal…) instead of dropping into shroud to save yourself, you let folk kill you. Often they will drop a killing blow, and turn their attention immediately, because they know they just ended you… then your in shroud with a full LF bar, healing just enough to cover your kitten . Then BAM BAM BAM, they die. Unholy Sanctuary is the reason to take death magic… it allows you to compensate for using a berserker ammy. (honestly if there were any other with that much precision and ferocity… I’d be thinking much harder about ammy choice)

As for Valkyrie, I’m willing to test it, but 50% crit in shroud vs 97% crit in shroud… is pretty huge. guaranteed 5k’s are a lot better than 2k’s possibly 5’ks… with as slow as the shroud auto is, you need to know that the next hit will hit as hard as it can. If it doesn’t, then with how glassy the build is, you can die because you can’t out sustain.

See… I understand the point of the previous posters saying the build is too glassy. The idea is that you do SO MUCH sustained burst damage, that your lack of survivalability is irrelevant, they just die to fast. You can’t underestimate the power of showing up to a team fight, hitting blood is power, then immediately popping lich form. Using your 2 to apply a huge vuln stack to all of them, then hand out 11k damage to each fool. 1 shot, next target… 1 shot next target. Let your teammates clean it up… and I can hear all of you now… “but lich form is a huge ‘KILL ME’ sign” and it is… you let them and drop from lich into shroud, and hit them for a string of 5k’s… they will be pushed onto the defensive and usually you can burst through everything… including warriors and revenants.

But hey, all this aside. I never said its “the best build ever” I said, “I love this build” its really fun. And it’s not reaper… which means its not another anime-scythe-swinging silly melee necro.

you can use a “demolisher” ammy. although the loss of crit damage is very noticeable.

Most crappy build you can make can be useful and has been since the 2nd season. That’s because everyone relies so much on the class to carry them rather than skill and get so used to the metabuilds that when they encounter something else they can’t deal with it. So the reason these builds work is because no one expects them. As soon as you actually face someone that knows what they are doing you become useless.

I ran a stupid Valkyriebuild in emerald-saphire last season. It stopped working halfway through saphire as the build was quite crap(a ton of fun though). Then it was back to the builds that was actually good.

Many vanilla builds are shot thanks to the condi meta and HoT, there should be more build diversity with vanilla AND HoT builds working in high ranked tiers of pvp but who knows what anets plan is. They don’t seem to think vanilla builds are meant for anything anymore.

Dude, if you are having fun. then that’s all that matters. If you can get to whatever that black rank is (I don’t even care for PvP anymore) then why does anything else matter? Do you plan to play esports matches like the other kids that live at home with their mothers/have nothing to show for their life? If not, then just have fun. Black rank shows enough prestige, then.

To go “above” that means to get hardcore into GW2 PvP “esports” like the… (like 12?) same people that have been hardcore into GW2 PvP for years. Why waste your time? You will need to completely master your class; part of which includes doing thousands of duels in SPvP with varying builds as well as thousands of matches with teams etc. etc. It doesn’t get you anything.

By the time you do this (end result being you gain absolutely nothing but an ego boost… ONLINE) you could have found a wife, bought a house, done home projects, walked to China and back, earned probably $500,000 selling lemonade at a lemonade stand and learned about the meaning of life.

The only thing being the absolute best at your class in this game through determination will get you is an ego boost whenever you win your 1v1.