Guild Wars 2

Feel free to do whatever you want, guys. But understand what Meta builds are and why they exist in the first place.

Meta builds are not “made up” by some “Elitists” to shour at you. People try to accomplish a certain goal (getting through, being fast, low-manning) in especially “difficult” PvE content; these are Fractals and Raids. To accomplish these goals they try to take the combinations of classes and traits that are most beneficial in that situation.

If thats not what you want, like you just grind open world, i am sure no one of the “top pve guilds” would tell you you have to run a meta build there. They simply hardly care for that content. But if you enter content, that is specifically designed to require optimization – run a build that you or someone else can back up with maths and logical selections.

And please don’t blame the meta, if someone is just far too unexperienced to know what they do.

Let’s forget about the Elementalist for a second, because it derails the discussion. It’s not only wrong that you would have to run 7 of them – but also irrelevant in this discussion.

I am talking about a way to open spots for DPS and utility roles – not about the balance between the competing classes for these roles. So please let us focus more on the topic now.

Linken.6345:

So we really want 1 warrior 1 mesmer 1 druid 7 elementalist groups?

Aint that even more limiting?

What would prevent you from taking other classes in regular, non speed clear runs? Pre-Patch many classes were far more accepted than the patch before that (were Ele had far more damage output than any other class). But you still had only 4 slots. The balance between that classes nearly didn’t change, so I don’t see any reason 7 Eles would be considered mandatory for non-speed clear attempts.

What about WvW?
To be frankly honest, I have much less insight in the WvW meta. But as far as I know permanent boons have been a problem there and especially Resistance has been inconveniant.

On the one hand I believe that more spots for other roles than boon buffers could give the opportunity to take more classes that remove boons from opponents. Also there are WvW exclusive options to counter a boon heavy group, like boon removing traps or besiege weapons.
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What about Open World PvE?
It would be beneficial there, too, because its far easier to run a “close to optimal composition” by random, because you don’t need more Chronomancers etc. than there are. It would reduce the discrepancy of time between an organized and a non-organized attempt. Also it would give the developer the opportunity to make these more challenging, because they don’t have to struggle with the fact, that you run increadibly less damage, just because the Open World suqad mates run the “wrong” classes.
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Thank you for your time
I hope it is comprehensive and makes some sense. For game modes like Fractals or Structured PvP these changes have no effect, because you don’t encounter more than 4 allies, and from my perspective all large-scale game modes would benefit hugely.

Please tell me your opinion and suggestions, I hope to start a discussion here. And I also hope that the developers will think critically about that idea, and share their thoughts.

Dear Developer and User of the official Forum,
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I hesitated to make this post, but got encouraged after I shared my ideas with fellow guild mates and friends. And being constructive is probably better than just flaming on the subreddit. My point:

I think 10-character-wide shared buffs – including boons like might and buffs like Empower Allies – would be benefitial for Raiding in PvE, big-scale fights in WvW and even Open World PvE events.

And I will elaborate on that. (In advance: I am far more familiar with Raids in PvE than playing WvW, so my arguments may be stronger when refering to raids. I tried my best to get informations about WvW from my fellow guildies and friends.)
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But what are the problems with the current system?

Following may seem trivial, but stick with me. There are boons and buffs in the game as we know. They are – depending on the game mode – strong, especially if you have access to multiple buffs at the same time. So there is a incentive to get those boons that are mostly beneficial for your game mode. Thats for example Quickness or Grace of the Land for Raids, or Resistance in WvW.

But very few – often only one – class can give or give reliable a certain buff to 4 of his squad members. That leads to a superior composition, where certain classes get far more spots than other classes. In the raiding meta you maily want to keep Quickness, Might and Grace of the Land as good as possible while also having access to buffs like Alacrity, Spotter, Empower Allies, Ranger Spirits and Warrior Banners. All of them are on only 3 classes and they take up 6 of 10 spots on a Raid squad – and 5 of 10 before the balance patch. Currently you take 2 Druids, 2 Chronos and 2 Warriors, because only one of them can only provide the wanted and superior buffs for half the party, while no other class can give these buffs or can give them satisfyingly.

The buffs are so strong that nerfing the source will increase the demand of the source. That hurts class (and build) diversity.
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What would 10-character-wide boons and buffs change?

If, lets say, a Phalanx Warrior would share its boons and buffs for 10 people satisfyingly, only every 10th spot would be reserved for a Phalanx Warrior – instead of every 5th. In a Raid squad that would mean you should bring 1, but 1 is enough.

In a common Raid squad that would only pre occupy 3 spots with fixed classes (/builds), 4 if you would have to run the pre-patch Chrono + Revenant combination to archive 100% Quickness, leaving 6 spots for 5 remaining classes. I dont know the exact established composition for WvW, but i am sure that it will open some spots there, too.
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Would’nt that lead to a super group in Raids?

There were concerns about 10-character-wide buffs leading to a supergroup before the Raids were released. What I mean by a super group: You are most optimal using every class exacly 1 time in your suqad (And only 1 class twice of course). A super group would only mimic diversity, because you have every class in it, but only 1 Raid squad composition is viable. I don’t anticipate that either. But that will not necessarily happen. To be honest I even highly doubt that.

Besides the boons and buffs I talked about, the classes in Guild Wars 2 have access to a lot of utility, like removing conditions or removing boons, and have different ways to damage opponents. There will be fights where a role is needed, and fights where its not. So a squad may want to take a Necromancer or a Revenant to absorb their team mates conditions. Either one works, and thats the way it should be. But to prevent something like a super group the abilitys of a class should rarely be unique for that class. Luckily we have most of the unique abilitys on these 3 classes for PvE. Most of the others are interchangable between classes if needed, like the Revenant and Necromancer example.

I think it’s also a fine playground for upcoming Elite Specialisation. You could give the great quickness or might stacking abilitys to other classes and give the remaining classes Raid relevant utilitys that they can choose from depending on the encounter. If different Elite Specialisations offer options for all classes, there is no need for any class, but every class can be taken to a Raid. And limiting the need for these buffing roles to 3 or 4 will give the developers much more freedom for the designing for Elite Specialisations since there are more spots for unspecific utilitys in a squad.

Thanks for asking that question, Mo.

While I like to see more feminine options for Charrs and Asura, I don’t think adding the cups do give that armor that option. It doesn’t make sense to “put a focus” on a body part that a race doesn’t have that way, and it doesn’t really fit to that races neither. It doesn’t look more feminine – as it was intended – it looks like it’s trying to copy a female human. I’d much rather have the male versions than the cups if we only have those two options.

While we’re at it: Is there a specific reason for the human female armors chests (light/medium) to be close to being “just bras”, whilst the male versions don’t show any skin besides the face and the fingertips? I don’t like that my female human gets so much less clothing than my malefrom the same armor – and in the case of the heavy armor you even did everything right in both matters!

Devs, pleeeeease! Thats vandalism! D: Nerfing Frostspirit is pointless. I hope they have noticed it alredy (altough someone could just answer to that thread). If it’s not fixed in the upcoming patch I want to trade my ranger for gems!

Why no portals?

Give the ranger a portal utility, like the mesmers one. At the moment the mesmer has a monopol on it. Just let the ranger put two bushes on the ground, let the player can “port” between them for a short time and call it “Shortcut”.

Would be quite fun.

Specific Game Mode

PvE (Dungeons & Fractals), may affect other Modes if you do not intend to split mechanics.

Proposal Overview

Pets. There are several problems in PvE:
a) AI and very tough to controll
b) Survivability (AoEs, no Dodges – in Combination with the AI)
c) Too complex pet system. Some Cleave, some do not, some are Rangepets. Different Stats and Skills. It leads to a small group of superior Pets.

Goal of Proposal

The Pet is more like a task to take care of than a nice, helpful mechanic. It should not be the Rangers highest priority to react to the pets stupidity (As moving, just because the pet does not leave the AoE etc.). On the other hand there is that bunch of pets with different mechanics, but a lot of them are useless or incomprehensible. Why does not every pet cleave? The Warrior, Ele or Guard cleaves/Aoes with quite everything. Make a general pet-skilltree and let the different pet-vaiations be ornamental as armors.

Proposal Functionality

Works fine, at least it would improve the current situation.

Associated Risks

Pet could became a bit overpowered. But you could also reduce general pet damage and increase the rangers damage on the other hand.