Guild Wars 2

Acandis.3250:

90% of sigils need to be reworked, the last major patch completely botched the sigil balance that combat revolved around , and the devs did not do the job they claimed in balancing the sigils with their new independent ICDs.

Rom is a beast.

After the stream tonight I want to enquire again about the Ready Up broadcasts!

The information is too vague and not available outside of a stream or ovd, people will miss it and feel cheated when the patch hits.

Can you please tell us in a concise manner what we can do to prepare for the removal of glory?

I would like to ask the developers for more clarity in terms of the upcoming glory change and how we can prepare for it.

Also I’d like to question the strategy behind recent glory sinks (cultural armor, the winterdays npc, etc.) and the obvious problem of glory boosters and spvp crafting materials.

To make the playerbase aware of how glory is not going to be phased-out, but is actively being phased-out already… which has not necessarily been in our advantage due to Arenanet’s lack of clear communication about their plans. Unfortunately.

http://youtu.be/dsJEjTNDt3E

Recap in the ‘PvP Developer Behind the Scenes: Ready Up – Ep 5’:
- Use glory boosters.
- Fill out your locker. (?)
- Get “those things” out of your locker. (?)
- Salvage “extras”. (?)
- Craft “specific pvp stuff”. (?) Use ALL your crafting materials.
- Make unidentified dyes.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/phasing-out-pvp-glory/

Blog post February 13 ‘Phasing Out PvP Glory’
- All random reward chests removed.
- All rank vendors will be removed.
- New glory vendor will be altered and eventually removed.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/player-vs-player-rewards-roadmap/

Blog post December 2 ‘Rewards Roadmap’
- Greater rewards for teamwork in competitive play.
- Gear transferable from PVP to PVE and vice versa, so fill your locker.
- Gold and experience in PVP. Gold will be the standard currency.

To me, it seems wasteful to be unclear about these changes. Players will and have spent or not spent glory on various temporary sinks and may already start to feel cheated! Unless the new award system is flawless, individual players will have missed a chance to be awarded for what they had earned in the past and will have to work towards regaining features they lost by not being informed.

Please, be more vocal and clear about exactly what will change and how you anticipate it will affect the players. The blog posts are far more functional than the youtube videos in this matter.

I, for one, exchanged all my glory then and there before there was a chance of it being removed.

(I had not saved up that much, though, since I spent most of it when I got rank 40 few months ago and then took a break from the game.)

This NPC could cripple the economy on a long term basis. But seeing as gold earnings have been biased against playing SPVP for much much longer than glory will remain part of the game, I agree. Bring it back before the removal of glory.

It is only fair and it is a great gesture towards a dedicated SPVP playerbase!

Josh Davis.6015:

… many of the sigils will be rebalanced to compensate for the ability to stack two of the same type.

Still this begs the question: why implent this change at all?

Simply adding an additional effect to a weaponset through one additional sigil is effective power creep. Will you rebalance each 2H weaponset to account for each new sigil combination? Again, why bother?

When double 2h builds, such as Longbow / Hammer Warrior, are considered some of the strongest in the game, is that not a red flag for this change?

I understand the concern for buffing Staff Ele or Rifle Engineer, but those weaponsets suffer from very different issues than lacking an extra sigil slot.

It has been your stance since Beta, when players asked about the sigil disadvantage on 2H weapons, that 2h weaponsets would be balanced accordingly. Why has this changed?

Agreed.

Returned from long hiatus and I have no direct access to the recent skillpoint unlockable Heals.

It feels like another PVE or WvW unlockable which negatively influences the feeling of progression we desperately need in SPvp.

You leave players with only one option: grind old content for skillpoints to unlock new content, because it is better than original content.
Alternatively, they should not care because the new content is intentionally weaker than original content?

No point in throwing oil on the fire here, but this is the most awfully skewed series of posts I have hoped to contribute to constructively on these forums.

Seriously, what happened to the awesome community we had?

To the new players: learn the game before you start calling out people who have played it since beta, you don’t know how different the meta used to be and how bad it is now.

To the senior players: stay away, if you left. I sure know I will from now on.

To ArenaNet: GG, make some more PVE skins.

Honestly, the hate in this thread is offputting. Too bad, because it is a pretty good list of all the things that have left players unsatisfied and forced some to quit the game.

Frequency and scale of the balance patching are too insignificant for any of this to be fully realised, though.

But the developers can’t afford to ignore good ideas, even if the OP is “a random dude”.

Then again, some people don’t know what they’re talking about and that has been made plenty clear in this thread as well.

http://www.ultraimg.com/images/9KU2V.gif (courtesy of Jumper)

I agree with everything the OP (Henry) listed. Though, he could work on his phrasing and general tone so people will take his advice seriously.

These are not l2p issues. Henry has as much experience and skill in playing this game as anyone and he knows what he’s talking about. No idea why you’d take my word for it, but I thought I’d put that out there.

Re: 21 lame things

I’d prioritize dodging (4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ) – Energy sigils and Lyssa runes definitely need to be adjusted. Sigil of paralyzation is still broken. (3)
Hotfixing should become customary, instead of having to wait 3 months to fix obvious bugs!

Passive play through AI or signets is very harmful to SPvP. These issues have been targeted in the past, but continue to be crutches for players and classes such as Ranger. Long uncounterable invulnerabilities should be avoided too, though there are numerous ones in-game. It should always be offset by inability to attack during the invulnerability: i.e. Mistform (1, to a lesser extend 2, 9, 15)

Undodgable burst (10) also has negative effects on the Meta, inforcing all the above. Fresh Air Elementalist will be dominant if condition meta disappears.

Lag issues (14) have been plagueing the Mists recently. It has nothing to do with our internet connections, definitely server issues on ArenaNet’s end!

(18) If you plan to nerf stealth stacking / grouping, Shadows Refuge’s cooldown is the way to do it.

(20) Access to burning makes condition builds viable or unviable: i.e. Necromancer with or without Dhuumfire. All condition builds should have their access to burning looked at first.

(21) Standardized model sizes need to happen to make GW2 an #Esports, better sooner than later…

Exactly, there are a lot of traits that are completely required to be viable for each class.

Also, the passive stats attached to the traitlines sometimes make the traitline mandatory or rubbish.

[O] Thief: Executioner – Deal 20% extra damage when target is below 50% health.

[O] Necromancer: Dhuumfire – 100% chance to inflict burning for 2 seconds on critical hits. This effect can only trigger once every 10 seconds.

swordbreaker.5189:

S
+Warrior
=Necromancer
=Thief
-Ranger

A
=Guardian

B
+Mesmer
-Engineer

C
-Elementalist

Agreed. Though, I still think these lists lack a proper way to account for various builds for each class, as well as their offensive and defensive roles in team compositions.

A = Average (All classes should strive to be here) meaning only Guardian is truely balanced. Tier S all suffer from the same imbalance: too much damage for their survivability.

Power Ranger, DPS Guardian, Minion or Power Necromancer, Condition or PP Thief, Bunker Warrior, Staff Elementalist, Rifle Engineer, Phantasm Mesmer, … all still underperform purely because of flaws in weaponsets, traits and utilities.
S/D Thief used to be unviable, but added mechanics shot them up the tier list so I’d advice caution with adding random effects to weaponsets.

The same thing was said about Warriors back when they were considered bottom tier, look at them now dominating after they were buffed.

People need to start releasing balancing for a different meta means “adding new effects” to underused abilities for Anet. They don’t tweak the numbers.

D/P Thief is the only build I still enjoy to play in Tournaments.

I love how skilled use of mobility and smart use of stealth allow you to out play more dominant, safer and more passive builds that rule the meta currently.

Arenanet should reconsider: nerf evades and blind stacking, not stealth or you’ll kill all build variety on thief! Only S/D will remain viable and that is the only build that should be considered for balancing.

Stealth stacking on allies is too strong in coordinated play, but requires teamplay which should be promoted!

Aye.8392:

This is certainly an exploit of the system. Hopefully A-Net is looking at permanent bans for the players involved as well as changing the system to encourage a more fun type of play.

It always amazes me when people who are breaking the rules blame it on the system instead of taking responsibility for their own poor choice. “You made me!” is such a grade-school response.

And asking for permanent bans is not a petty response? How are those people even affecting the fun others are having? It’s exclusive to Skyhammer in Custom Arena’s and people actually pay a lot of gems to organise their own games!

If anything, this behaviour shows how flawed the glory rank system is and it draws away glory farming from the Hotjoin servers! I can’t believe Arena Net didn’t foresee this happening when they introduced an instant kill mechanic on Skyhammer, anyways…

This game is dictated by how the developers balance it, the entire meta revolves around the lastest patch. There is only one gamemode and a limited set of proven strategies.

Trial and error have unveiled which builds work and which don’t. There will never be true build diversity when certain runes, sigils and traits are so obviously superior to others. And only balancing patches bring any form of change.

Do you really think someone will discover a build that no one has thought to try since release? Or will decent players just read the patch notes and adopt what is plainly overpowered this time around?

This isn’t an excuse, this is what they actuall believe.

This was not the first SOTG where that question was asked and the answer has always been the same: they think it would be too intensive for the average player because the pet is a seperate entity.

It may seem like a poor excuse for not wanting to raise the skill floor of the Ranger class, but it isn’t! It’s a flat “no, we don’t want to.”.

Ranger will always rely on passive play and either be overpowered or useless because AI and RNG have no business in a PvP environment.

Caed is pro. Denshee FM radio. Shout-outs to depressing CmC.

I can’t believe Karl is dedicating most of his time working on tooltips for traits, when balance is so poor even the most dedicated players are being driven away.

/thread

Oh no, now Raid on the Capricorn is ruined! No one will ever want to play that map again!

Landing a big Eviscerate feels so good.

It is all becoming too obvious now. Where half a year ago, we did not know what was in store for us and we only had the core game mechanics to drive our expectations, now we have seen how Guild Wars 2 is being developed and it simply is subpar. That is why previously dedicated players are leaving.

If you purchased the game a year ago and you are still playing, then you have gotten your money’s worth… but only if you played all aspects of the game!

(Sidenote: I can’t deny this might be the exact reason development is so slow! Compared to Blizzard’s annual revenue on subscriptions, ArenaNet is solely reliant on Gem Store purchases as a way to draw income from the active playerbase. In the end, it is their responsibility to realistic goals within their business plan and I think that is what they’ve been doing, but it doesn’t allow for the kind of growth we want.)

From the outside – prerelease promotion included – Guild Wars 2 looked like a promising MMO that would outlast competitors. Offering unique and rich features for a diverse playerbase: PVE, SPVP and WvW. In reality, it simply cannot compete with contemporaries and is lacking in both new content and patching for balance, etc.

To me, it seems like one group of people developed the core game mechanics and upon release only a handful of people were left to maintain and shape the world the others had created.

tl;dr – Consider the following: not only the SPvP department is understaffed and therefore incapable of producing content that meets expectations, PVE and WvW playerbase feels exactly the same way. ArenaNet simply has no finances or no vision to develop the great videogame they released one year ago. Their aim is mediocrity, the lowest common denominator, the casual player, …

Pyroatheist.9031:

Everybody seems to think that the problems in Pvp are a result of a lack of resources being given to the balance team. I think this gives the balance team too much credit.

The problems in pvp are due to the balance team being completely incompetent, from the top to the bottom. I honestly don’t see any hope for this changing, as any change would require the removal of the Jon’s and co. from balance entirely, and I can’t see Anet actually doing that.

It’s hard to deny any of this! Jon’s commentary at PAX was almost reminiscent of Karl’s first appearance on State of the Game when it comes to understanding the gameplay they are balancing.

The balance team needs to balance more insightfully in terms of the current SPvP meta, more efficiently in terms of their future goals and more frequently to accomodate player wellbeing!

From my point of view:
- They have no idea what is played because it is powerful compared to what players actually want to play.
- There are no plans. None for specific classes (bugged traits, unused weaponsets or overall viable builds). None for a balanced meta in terms of their ideals for the conquest gametype (power or condition heavy? bunkers or roamers? high skillcap or low skillfloor?) None for anything beyond what the community repeatedly throws in their faces and what they are assigned through management.
- They are unwilling to adapt their philosophy of a slow and steady balancing and fail to see where this has gone wrong in the past. The meta is entirely dictated by their “non-whack-a-mole” balancing, but they still insist players can afford to build independently of the flavour of the month and be viable in their skewed matchmaking system.

Q: OP.
A: Public Test Realm

http://i.imgur.com/eACzJ4e.gif

Durzlla.6295:

Anyone have a link to the vid? I checked the twitch channel but didn’t see it…

Exactly. Watch PAX? How?

If you didn’t catch it live, good luck digging through the entire stream… when will the developers understand that if they want serious viewership they need to make their content visible and easily accessible?

It’s the first worldwide event / one year anniversary celebration and it’s not even highlighted on the Twitch channel… can’t you simply upload the matches to Youtube? If you want to be taken seriously try to take minor attention of what similar companies and games are doing: League Of Legends, for example.

At this point, everything good about this game is community driven. I don’t care anymore, here is the link: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/454437568 – around 4 to 5 hours in.

Lady Sara Goldheart.2764:

Question: When will we see Unrated tournaments be implemented and Hot-Joins be removed?
Right now, the environment is not really in favor of new players. With a new reward system on the way, ranks can fulfill a different purpose than now. So Hot-Join kind of becomes unnecessary for various reasons when we have unrated tournaments.

+1

Unranked Arena’s would accommodate small casual friend groups. Those who want to play on the same team and learn the basics of tournament play without having to face top tier teams or be paired with uncommunicative glory farming allies.

Right now, there is no place for people who want to play together with one or two friends!

Solo queue? No, you join alone.
Team queue? No, you will face premade five man teams.
Hotjoin? No, I’d like to refer to this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Hotjoin-it-is-time-to-let-go/first

Helseth should just play Zellqt’s banana mesmer build!

Jumper.9482:

An aftercast buff on CnD, enabling TS to be used as a viable interrupt (at the same time buffing D/D). And/or revert the nerf to CnD and buff Tactical Strike damage.
And giving Dancing Dagger something extra. Torment (to help p/d condi as well) or a mini stun on the first hit when landed from behind the target.
This would go, in hand, with nerfing FS/LS dps by about 5-15%.

Solid idea to balance all thief weaponsets! I like the mini-stun related to positioning idea. Patch, please.

What about the auto-attacks, though? And the evades (one evade) people complain about paired with numerous dodges?

Jumper.9482:

A 10% dps nerf would be enough for me to shelf S/D, pick up D/P again, and never look back.
I wouldn’t mind it though, because D/P is actually a complete kit and more fun to play.

How do you feel S/D could be balanced purely as a set?

I am asking since a lot of top players felt it is too powerful and it was mainly your build that made the set spread in popularity immediately after Sword #3 was patched.

rsq.3581:

I have a friend I’ve been trying to get into GW2 for a long time. He tells me every time he plays he gets wrecked and doesn’t understand what to do to improve, so he continually gives up.

Same issue.

It is a huge barrier of entry. The community has asked for a more detailed scoreboard since beta, it would be one possible way to solve some of these issues.

I understand scoreboard can be misleading, but they at least provide some form of information. Personally, I think how players will understand the information relies completely on how the developers choose to provide it.

Take a look at the scoreboard in Bloodline Champions, for example: http://i.imgur.com/NzDSU.jpg (not my screenshot).

While it is might seem overly complex at first glance it could be a way to display meaningful stats that already exist in the game and how they relate to your overall score (top kill, points captured, …):
- time spent on friendly / enemy / contested point
- kill to death ratios
- damage done / taken
- healing done
- succesful control effects (measured in seconds)
- team points gained from secondary objectives

I felt indifferent to the contents of my birthday present when I opened it last night, but seeing this thread made think about it as another missed opportunity to create something special for SPvPers or draw in more PVE players to the Mists.

Cheers to Grouch for putting in all the effort of organizing the SOTGs in the past! It really helped construct a positive relationship between the developers and the community.

I hope they continue in a different form, though, feel like the game needs it now more than ever.

Phantaram.1265:

I can say that if we were still going to pax I’d be all for balancing before the tournament. Other games use older patches for tournaments so they can continue balancing even during the tournaments. This game doesn’t have that and continued balancing is far more important than 10 players playing for 10k. This tournament isn’t even really the beginning as it isn’t community driven, it’s just a booster arena net has provided. The community will decide whether this game grows or not and right now the game is not good enough. When it is good enough the community will get behind it and we will have ourselves a supported competitive game.

So while not balancing in the tournament could have helped the teams have a fair game for 10k, I think the teams would realize that the game needs growth and the 7.5k or 2.5k their team will earn is not sustainable without a good enough game.

+1 Exactly!

It’s absurd we have to wait for balance because of a tournament that should be an advocate for this game.

Agreed, why can’t the the community just get more balance patches, while the “pros” play their Spirit Ranger meta at PAX?

Allie Murdock.8152:

For sure, I can’t say we’re entirely happy with the meta right now either. Changes are coming.

There is a general consensus about the current meta being an alltime low and the point of this thread is to address the fact it won’t change before PAX (in the name of e-sports). So the entire playerbase feels their time in game is no longer priority and we are stuck playing a horribly flawed meta (not fun)!

Numerous other games simply continue balancing and choose to hold tournaments on a previous patch.

Regardless of his often ridiculous persona, Helseth is a pretty solid soundingboard for how to community feels.

If you are in this for the competition (Esports) don’t bother, unless you are one of the teams going to PAX right now.
Leaderboards are seriously flawed, I ranked solo queue top 100 on the first day and I am still ranked above most of the committed pvpers on my friendlist simply because I got up there first.

If you are looking to have fun, you better have 4 equally skilled friends to queue with otherwise there is nothing for you here. Hotjoin is frustrating and you are not even guaranteed to play on the same team.

I agree, it is a very poor idea to forego balance in favour of a prize tournament no one really cares to watch because balance is horrible.

No one will bother going through my post history, but I (among many players on the forums) called out a large number of the issues we are stuck with now before the release of key updates: leavers in tournaments, AI builds, abuse on the leaderboards, promotion for the game, …
I am glad a lot of players take initiative: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2pvptv, but in all honesty I feel Arenanet is not doing enough to make SPvP fun, competitive or esport worthy. I’m sorry.

It is nice for newer players to be vocal about their experiences.

I don’t claim to be a seasoned player. Though I have played a fair bit, I never competed on a proper team and I’d say playing with other people on voice chat is probably the most educational!

It gives you fast access to common team strategies and it will teach you the art of stomping / reviving that you can’t learn anywhere else.

In all fairness, Guild Wars 2 struggles on the aspect of communication and grouping. The new tournament systems move around this issue, but it is still very much present. There was a time when, unless you knew and played with a group of people already, there was basically no chance of finding one for tournaments.

Some pointers, if you like:

- Pay attention to combo fields: there are a lot of team play revolves around stacking might or stealth to open a fight. Learning every combination at your disposal can improve your play.

- Downed state is crucial: it is not always in your team’s best interest to stomp, simply damaging a downed enemy can be a safer way of securing a kill. Know the abilities every class will use in downed state and how your build can counter them. Same goes for reviving allies.

- Count your opponent’s dodges: dodging is the most basic and powerful defensive skill in the game, if you notice a target without endurance it is safe to burst or crowd control.

- Use verticals to your advantage: maps often offer secure and strategic positioning on the high ground. Moving up the vertical axis can allow you to leave a fight and save your life (less so now after blink nerfs).

- Personal positioning is essential, but knowledge of map control is equally important. Moving quickly between points can allow you to catch the opponents of guard by suddenly outnumbering them, stealing away their secondary buff or rotating your members of your team to their backpoint.
Sometimes it is better to sacrifice a point you have and moving elsewhere if you know you cannot defend it.

These are very basic ideas and since you said you won 10 solo queue matches and have experience in PvP games I recon you already do this, but it might be helpful still.

The issue is Arenanet can’t simply abandon the glory system now people have been grinding for months!

An idea for Glory Boosters: I know a lot of people don’t use them when they already have tons of glory. Perhaps in the future glory could be exchanged for rank points more dynamically? Through more effective rank boosters: larger percentiles, killstreaks, stomps, revives, top player, winning streaks, point defense, secondary objective captures, etc!

These could be purchased with glory (or like other boosters on the gem store if glory can be exchanged for gems.)

It would reward commited players by giving them something to actively spend glory on and also entertain newer players when exploring SPvP.

An idea for Seasonal Patches: one could more heavily focus on SPvP and introduce a temporary gamemode with temporary rewards that are exclusive for SPvP!
Similar to current events, these skins and titles could be carried over to PVE as a way of representing.

An idea for New Tournament Rewards: a lot has changed to the tournament system, from being ultra-exclusive the rewards have been given away in exchange for unused tickets… this could be an area to reintroduce existing skins that are available in PVE, but are still unattainable in SPvP.

I agree, but any meta build feels rather faceroll if you are used to backstab Thief, though.

Uncontrollable AI has no business in PVP, if viable it only promotes passive play.

butch.8136:

It’s because of hotjoin and no proper tutorial for pvp.

+1

Hotjoin only teaches bad habits to new players and Conquest is never explained in the slightest.

Builds too are at the core of SPvP! Most players either simply copy them without understanding them or make their own without the proper knowledge to do so: hidden cooldowns on sigils, etc.

We require:
- non-rated arena’s that are inviting for groups of friends to learn the tournament meta game.
- standard templates that can be updated each patch with simple descriptions of their role.

Sounds cool.

There is a lot of space for new rewards, goals, … in the Mists that could be introduced with minor work.

Map based achievements, new finishers and titles, new skins for tournaments, etc. could all enrich the experience of new and veteran players.

edit: Exclusives to SPvP could also be beneficial to draw PVErs to the Mists!

Balancing simply will require nerfing Necromancer, though.

There is no real counter they can introduce to their pressure of AOE, CC and variety of conditions. Unless we see a passive percentage reduction of condition damage that doesn’t involve stacking health points or gimmick runes.

Currently broken: S/D Thief, Dhuumfire Necromancer and Spirit Ranger – these three builds hurt build variety and even class viability beyond their own class.

I queued throughout the entire day and got consistently paired with the same group of players with varrying glory and leaderboard ranks.

I’m assuming the invisible elo is a factor or it is simply an issue of low population + constant queuing after each match ends.

I think there is more to it than simply sync queuing.

6 wins, 1 loss – then started losing some: skyhammer / spirit watch …

My experience in 5 matches has been really good. No low ranks, leavers or anything of the sort.

I’ve mostly been paired up with or against very seasoned players. A lot of them I recognised from the tournament streams, so they are high ranked: Suldaris, Wiwra, Konrad Quest, Phaeton, Shad, …

We had a lot of close matches and most of them were on the traditional rotation maps.

Only frustrating game so far was on Skyhammer, because the map is ridiculous. And maybe the one where I was on a team with 4 Necromancers…

Made a similar plea for unranked tournaments some time ago: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Hotjoin-it-is-time-to-let-go/first

I strongly believe it is the direction SPvp is headed anyways.

Phantaram.1265:

So come on guys come up with something to reduce necromancer dps that fits well with where arena net is taking the necromancer.

Where is Arena Net taking the Necromancer? Cries for viability and build diversity have skewed all risk / reward in Necro traits, utilities and death shroud skills. There are no sacrifices to be made when building a Necromancer you can simply take every newly introduced damage buff and get away with it by all the new passive survivability.

I made a post after previous patch in a similar thread: warning about adding more passive life force generation without carefully balancing our life force usage.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/My-Necromancer-Suggestions/2412882

My opinion about Necromancer’s place in a balanced meta:

“Necromancer should counter condition teams and boon stacking, while being weak to burst and crowd control. We should receive more tools to return or spread condition pressure and turn boons on opponent as a form of staying power. Arriving slower to the fight and being weak in skirmishes against burst comps, but turning the tide against bunkers and grouped up players.”

Necromancer only breaks the game when the meta is so AOE and condition heavy that power or control builds aren’t a viable counter. I am afraid recent buffs / nerfs to moderately balanced builds have shifted the meta so roughly we are in a downward spiral until Necro’s prescence is countered by a new overpowered power build.

It is funny how specific issues regarding particular abilities and playstyles that define specific builds has turned into an "this class is OP’ thread.

I personally agree the current meta is a new low in terms of balance and fun, it is down to certain new rebalanced utilities, traits and weapon skills that we ended up here.

Why have people still not released there will always be one build for each class that outperforms other builds or other classes in its specific role?
The SPvP maps have give an edge to mid range fighting and ground targetted AOE, so melee is always at a disadvantage unless it can withstand damage or avoid it. It will always be a toss up between bunkering and debunkering in the conquest gametype.

It doesn’t take a genius to read the patchnotes and apply them. We don’t see innovation because players magically discovered a way to make sets like P/P viable again…

It is down to the developers to figure out the correct way to balance existing builds. Instead of adding new gimmicks to cosmetically alter build diversity.
They dictate the meta more than the players at this time a year after release.

Agreed. Definitely think the pattern of balancing shows Arena Net wants to diversify, but currently it goes no further than introducing new gimmicks.

Necromancer is an abomination. Too many new elements have changed their position in the meta entirely and the entire meta with it. Completely imbalanced.
I want to refer to pre-patch ‘State of the Necro’ thread which is filled with ways that focused on the Necromancer’s weak points instead of amplifying its existing strengths.

There have always been multiple ways to build and play a Necro, but they were all subpar. Now the new Terror (30/30/10/0/0) build is performing far above average.

S/D thief is similar in the sense that an underused set started to dominate, because of an untested addition.
I still don’t agree this build has too many dodges (30 trait point investment), but the shadowstep is still too good. Increase initiative cost and decrease damage!
S/D would be excellent as a support utility build to steal boons and pin down priority targets, but it now carries on its own.

Stealth is difficult to balance, but I think this game does it very well. It has remained fairly unique and makes Thief a valuable addition to any team.
It is only an issue in highly organised play, though. I’d say they would do more bad than good by trying to fix it.
Perhaps a Thief’s allies shouldn’t ‘Stealth’, but ‘Hide in Shadows’ making it unstackable on allies? (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hide_in_Shadows_)

We should expect balance to fluctuate and bring variety in builds. This has been achieved, but now balance has shifted out of the player’s reach. Unless you play a Meta strategy you will lose.