A few pet theories of mine to explain the play how you want mindset. I rate each one by how much it makes me cringe when I hear PHYWs use them.
1. “I don’t like to respec between pve and wvw.”
This is either because the person doesnt play a lot and doesnt have the gold or whatever to maintain two separate gearsets or he is lazy.
Cringe factor: 3/10
2. “I wvw a lot, and PVE is easy so you can play whatever”
This person is similar to the first, except they bring a WvW elitist mindset in. They are pro-zergers (clearly insanely better at pvp than you could ever hope to be) and they don’t mind letting you know how easy pve is as they Scepter/shield the boss down with their Healway Guardian. Since they didn’t take ANY damage (or immediately healed whatever they did take) it proves they are right, and it doesn’t matter that it took 10 minutes longer to finish the run than it could have, because PvE (unlike high stakes wvw zergs) is a pass/fail test.
Cringe Factor: 8/10
3. “This is what I enjoy playing.”
This one knows that shortbow ranger is bad in dungeons, but plays it anyway because he simply finds it fun. He isn’t deluded about the effectiveness of his build; he just likes it better. This one seems innocent at first and you’re inclined to excuse it, but then you realize the ugly truth: he only cares about his experience and doesnt give a kitten if the build he enjoys playing is a nightmare for everyone else in the party.
Cringe Factor: 5/10
4. “the meta builds are for sheep, my build does 10x more damage than those dumb zerker builds. Celestial does nearly as much direct damage as zerker and the extra condition damage puts the dps over the top. Ofcourse my build is better, look at how fancy the graphics are on my youtube channel.”
No need to mention names, but this is the type of guy who doesn’t actually understand the game or the mechanics or the math behind it, but does understand how to make well-editted youtube videos promoting horribad builds. Inexplicably, this person equates build quality with youtube views. When challenged on their math or game mechanic knowledge, they will revert to one of the other PHYW examples here.
Cringe Factor: 7/10
5. “This is a support build because I like to be supportive to my team, NOT dps.”
This person is a relic of some other MMO where there was such a thing as midline support builds. They subconsciously crave the old school trinity class system because it allows them to safely blend into the background and finish dungeons without their team realizing they aren’t good. In an ironic twist, this was the very same person who was incredibly excited when Anet announced that there would be no trinity in GW2. They mistook the concept of ‘no defined healer or tank roles’ with ‘anything goes and everything will be viable.’
Cringe Factor: 4/10
6. Try Hard Casual Ninja
This person hates hardcore players so much, for some reason that seems impossible to determine, that he goes hardcore in griefing them. most often you encounter them only rarely, like a ghost, usually followed by a cursed shore loading screen. Or as a silent down vote on a youtube speed run video. Like an assassin, they quickly enter your party kick you out of the instance and are gone before you even get their name. They love youtube and reddit downvotes, another way to anonymously express their displeasure of people doing things they disagree with, yet aren’t affected by. Some are misguided white knights who think they are helping the community, others are simple trolls and yet others are people who think they are somehow winning a non-zero sum game by aggressively promoting casual gameplay.
Cringe factor: 10/10
