Guild Wars 2

It’s been about 5 months since I’ve played GW2. I don’t know exactly what has overall changed in the PvP aspect. So I’ll ask everyone’s opinion and answers on a few questions.

So, did they nerf Necro? Or buff everyone else?

Did they finally fix Vampirism to where it isn’t useless and only-working on hybrids?

Did they fix the match making?

Do people still think having a high standing on leaderboards make them pro?

And lastly, is it worth coming back on to theory craft new builds for Necro, and relearn the new patches?

I left the last time, because I got tired of Arenanet making it harder for me to do things with experimentation. I could no longer swap builds out in PvP if a build I was testing didn’t work, so I was forced to lose, sabotage teams, or end up wasting time. Not to mention restricting that disabled counter-play, so it often ended up being a rock-paper-scissors game decided in the first half. Which I disliked.

So, did they change any of that for the better? Or should I just not even bother anymore?

I remember you, dude.

Nothing new, Carrion Dhuumfire/Terror builds are still the most competitive atm; Minion Master became popular in spvp, together with Soldier Death Shroud powerbuilds revolving on Deathly Perception and Vital Persistence.
Vampiric Well builds aren’t still that nice. The only leeching trait which works nicely is Vampiric Master which is abused in MM builds.

That kind of rock-paper-scissors seems to be still the way pvp is going on. Can’t say if it’s so in competitive environment, I also didn’t waste too much time on it.

Wait for March 18th if you are interested in potential meta changes, elseway you can have some fun with the last 2-3 Living History season 1 events.

1) Nerf to condi, nerf/buff to others, buff to warr. 40% now play warr

2) No. Added a new heal skill, signet of vampirism. Was a fail, not even worth unlocking.

3) Yes. IMO at least. They fixed team #1-5 vs team #6-10. So now both sides have equaly good/bad players. A great improvement, should be like this from start.
You can still get that one r10 noob if you play at non peak hours, but thats more problem of low population which cant be fixed and your rating.

4) Some do, some dont. Being pro is more proven on the ESL weeklys and by others acknowledging you. We all know you can fall low/high on boards, let ur gameplay speak for itself.

5) Id say no atm. In a month theres a balance patch, but its just useless small stuff. Theyre changing all runes and sigils, so that might change but OP skill/traits will be left till summer.
Build templates are an idea but not confirmed yet.
The issue you described cant be solved, since unranked matches = hotjoin. You can however just play for fun and since teamQ doesnt have skyhamer/spirit map, #200-90% of teamQ ladder is 2/3 of solo players. So if you fall into this category, u can play soloQ here and then for fun while actualy more playing teamQ. Youll get more rank point reward too.