To give an update I did make a condo build that doesn’t feel too bad, it’s niche but fun nonetheless. I’m not sure if condo warrior will stand the competition, this is me trying to dive into what warrior is supposed to offer that other classes cannot
I have a love/hate relationship with the warrior class, it’s been one of my mains since launch next to mesmer, but for over a year, warrior just doesn’t feel like it’s supposed to. I want to like it so badly, but it just doesn’t feel right. Maybe I was used to the wrong way of playing all these years, but I always imagined warrior as a tanky brute. When I wasn’t porting around on my frail but agile mesmer, I felt like taking hits and dishing out damage on my warrior. Axebow was probably my favorite of the warrior builds.
I thought berserker was going to be the in your face aggressive damage dealer, but dragonhunter does that. With the exception of macebow (which was nerfed), everytime berserker is good for damage, it’s always sniping with the rifle. I feel like I should be in their face swinging around an axe, burning something I’m not sure, but sniping with a rifle is the go to choice? I feel like when melee weapons take the back seat on a berserker/warrior, that just doesn’t seem right.
In my opinion it isn’t DH’s fault that people at lower tier are having trouble with them when more than 1 is present, it is both the game mode it’s played and the stat distribution system. Conquest makes it so others have to fight near or on point with trap DHs. and on the other hand what does not help is this is a glass meta, and they mostly removed the tank amulet like clerics. I would bet that if they re-added Merc amulet or something like Trailblazer again you’d see a bigger increase of mesmer, warrior and necro players, around. Instead they have to settle for Carrion or Wanderer’s amulet instead. other classes become much more OP if given the appropriate stats. If you wanted to nerf DH the Anet way, remove Marauder’s amulet from the game.
It’s always aggravated me since launch because DH is very aggressive, high damage in your face bruiser, meanwhile the berserker, who’s sole purpose is to do high damage and be in your face, is staying back with a rifle everytime there is a dps meta.
Warrior is such a disaster of a class and has been for over a year with one exception. Macebow was good because it had really good 1v1 potential, but you’re ultimately going to go to DH for your 1v1 potential and aoe/tankiness via blocks, and you’re going to go to your revenant for the high mobility in your face dps.
Thief. I loved my thief to the bone during vanilla but left shortly after HoT was released. I was active in both sPvP, WvW and PvE, but the elite specializations (that ended up being mandatory for every aspect of the game) destroyed it for me. I hate Daredevil, but you can’t play competitively without it.
I miss the old D/P times :/
I always sucked with thief and engi in particular lol, but I knew some good thieves. As a mesmer main I always felt like mesmers and thieves were the arch nemesis of classes haha.
I think we can both agree though we have been usually terrified of guardians hah
Unblockable Attacks are blocked by Endure Pain.
Unblockable attacks are not blocked by Signet Of Stone.
Is there a reason for this? Which one is not working properly?
I would say it’s working as intended, as utilities are categorized in the description. For example, the shield on a warrior says “block for 2 seconds,” same goes for other blocking weapons and such on guardian or revenant. Aegis, despite being a boon, still says i nthe description it blocks the next attack.
Endure pain is not considered a block, but rather a stance and therefore does not apply to it.
Another fun but niche situation is pairing X/Torch and X/Axe. There’s a lot of fire bolts to be had, and even better mobility to keep that combo on target.
Sounds interesting, can you link me the build? How well does it do against top tier threats?
There are two main reasons why you don’t see many dhs at higher level play.
First, projectile hate. Auramancer ele shuts bow down so hard. Scrappers and warriors also have an easy way to deal with it. On top of that true shot is quite telescopic and easy easy to avoid. Beyond that the bow doesn’t really do much. And guardian doesn’t have good way to set up melee burst. Not to mention its melee burst isn’t anywhere near other power builds.
Secondly, on the trap side of things, its a one trick pony. The trap bomb is easy to deal with while taking minimal to no damage with obsidian flesh, endure pain or any teleport. Plus it can be easily triggered with clones, pets, minions etc. And if you’re running the meditation variant, most decent players will know not to strafe on the edge of test of faith.
Beyond that, as you mentioned, the movement speed is abysmal, which makes it really unsuited for roaming, therefore how strong it is in certain 1v1 matchups is irrelevant.
I also disagree with it being good for beginners. Yes, it is absolutely very beginner friendly. However it encourages camping on point instead of rotating, which is a practice that needs to go.
I do agree with it being a one trick pony, I can definitely see why it’s not seen in higher level play. That being said, casual pvp is also a very large portion of this game, and similar to cheese builds in the past like turret engineers, yeah it wasn’t seen in high tier play, but the effect it had on the average match/1v1 was unhealthy for the game.
This isn’t to completely slam on DH, but after me and some friends played various offensive builds for different classes, I was wondering why DH stood out to me.
Take for example revenant, it’s very strong, but also susceptible to cc, conditions and has pretty much no ranged attacks. Warrior has good toughness, but relies a little too much on stances and no real healing to back it up (though the unblockable is pretty nice via the signet.)
When I play DH, I find I can deal with both other power and condi specs equally well. The one downside is they’re still pretty slow when it comes to mobility, but I find the powerful ranged attacks, cc via traps, heals and blocks to not only be easier to pick up, but more adaptable to the situation.
Switch out surging with leadership rune if you need more condi clear.
Guide: Make sure you go into options and have your lock ground target to current target checked and ground targeting set to instant. Have fun.
Imma try this, thank you haha
Zerker Amulet – Arms, Defense, Berserker. Signet build for hunting DH or any class that relies on block.
Diviner Amulet – Discipline/Defense/Berserker. Focuses on Quickness and Resistance boon uptime, can stack minutes of resistance and have 6 seconds of downtime on Quickness.
Viper Amulet – Strength/defense/Berserker. Sw/Torch, Mace/Shield disruption burn build.
to name some.
Which one are you preferring so far out of the bunch?
Honestly I like all 3. Those are the 3 builds that my 3 wars currently have and I switch between Wars depending on the Enemy team comp.
If they have lots of condi, I play diviner because of the super stacking on resistance, if they have lots of Dh I play the zerk Amulet signet build which is stacked with unblockable attacks and if they have a messy team comp or lack of condi removal it’s the Viper war.
Can you link me the builds for all three? I wanna try them out, never even heard of the diviner one but it sounds neat
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQJAURjMdQZI2GCWhAnIWyCMloWhLF8+ZDtrWkBQBIAA-TZQABAw+DAA
Left some parts open, need Divinier amulet but sigils I use blood/air. Doesn’t really matter tho.
Add me to friends if you’re NA and I can show you after work how the build functions properly, looks messy on paper.
just added you now if you’re online
Zerker Amulet – Arms, Defense, Berserker. Signet build for hunting DH or any class that relies on block.
Diviner Amulet – Discipline/Defense/Berserker. Focuses on Quickness and Resistance boon uptime, can stack minutes of resistance and have 6 seconds of downtime on Quickness.
Viper Amulet – Strength/defense/Berserker. Sw/Torch, Mace/Shield disruption burn build.
to name some.
Which one are you preferring so far out of the bunch?
Honestly I like all 3. Those are the 3 builds that my 3 wars currently have and I switch between Wars depending on the Enemy team comp.
If they have lots of condi, I play diviner because of the super stacking on resistance, if they have lots of Dh I play the zerk Amulet signet build which is stacked with unblockable attacks and if they have a messy team comp or lack of condi removal it’s the Viper war.
Can you link me the builds for all three? I wanna try them out, never even heard of the diviner one but it sounds neat
Zerker Amulet – Arms, Defense, Berserker. Signet build for hunting DH or any class that relies on block.
Diviner Amulet – Discipline/Defense/Berserker. Focuses on Quickness and Resistance boon uptime, can stack minutes of resistance and have 6 seconds of downtime on Quickness.
Viper Amulet – Strength/defense/Berserker. Sw/Torch, Mace/Shield disruption burn build.
to name some.
Which one are you preferring so far out of the bunch?
Warrior used to be one of my mains alongside mesmer and ele, but while those have gotten better, my relationship with the class just hasn’t been good in a long time. I really, really want to like warrior, but there hasn’t been a build I have liked since the rampage meta over a year ago. It feels so sluggish now, even the last “good” build the macebow wasn’t really about fighting as much as it was waiting until your enemy uses all their utilities and becomes open.
I want a good pvp build now that I’m back from a break, being good in duels is a plus, being able to kill DH is even better. It can be tanky, condi, power, etc.
Warrior used to be one of my mains alongside mesmer and ele, but while those have gotten better, my relationship with the class just hasn’t been good in a long time. I really, really want to like warrior, but there hasn’t been a build I have liked since the rampage meta over a year ago. It feels so sluggish now, even the last “good” build the macebow wasn’t really about fighting as much as it was waiting until your enemy uses all their utilities and becomes open.
I want a good pvp build now that I’m back from a break, being good in duels is a plus, being able to kill DH is even better
Ele died for me when it became good at nothing except for group healing.
I’m prolly in the miniority here but I love healing as an ele, do I miss cele ele? Yeah, even though it was kinda OP haha, healing with ele is just fun for me.
That being said, I would like to see more offensive ele builds, I really do think its that low vitality holding them back
Condi chronomancer killed mesmer for me… Still trying to like mesmers in other ways, but I just can’t PvP much with it right now.
I actually like condi chrono its pretty fast paced and fun, Warrior just hasn’t felt good to play this past year or so, ever since the rampage meta. Unlike some other builds I’ve tried on different classes, warrior always feels incomplete when I play it. Very sluggish and glaring weaknesses similar to the revenant. Maybe I just don’t like heavy classes anymore but why am I playing light classes for tanking and heavy classes for glass cannon dps?
Say what you want, but dragonhunter feels like the best of the three. Good damage, blocks, heals, AOE, can deal with condition classes. Revenant and warrior both feel like to halves of what guardian currently is minus mobility. This isn’t confirmed or anything, just my personal opinion how my experience is playing heavy classes.
Nope, rolled a warrior on day 1 and still love till today!
I want to like it so bad, I just haven’t found a build that suits me very well hah, DH in particular are pretty hard to fight
Had you ever tried Necromancer?
I’ve messed with it a little bit, can’t say I’m knowledgeable of the class right now, I only know how to fight them hah. It was always a class I wanted to get better with though seeing as how I played necro in gw1
Keep in mind, this isn’t a “x class is underpowered/overpowered” topic but perhaps my taste changing. Ever since launch my two mains have been mesmer and warrior, I actually hated ele the first few years of the game (I sucked at it lmao), but as time passed I started to like ele more than warrior.
The last time I really had fun with warrior was shoutbow as cancer as it was, I think it has something to do with the flow of how the class works. Usually my mesmer was my go to really annoying shenanigans, my warrior was always the really tanky bruiser/support which I feel isn’t possible anymore. I’ve been really trying this past year or so to find a build I enjoy, and there’s definitely been some good ones. I guess I just don’t get that same fun out of it anymore, I used to like warrior for being super aggressive, in your face but now that my mesmer does that better, it’s hard to go back. That leaves the more tanky/support role and my ele just feels better to play in that respect. Ever had a class you really enjoyed but for the wrong reasons and kinda just switched overtime?
I might be missing something but due to their naturally low vitality and stats in general, I have a hard time trying to picture what they can run given the current amulet choices.
gs+axe/shield vanilla doesn’t work well against competent dh trappers+lb even with an unblockable in ur stats. You have no range so u have to chase them into their traps, the cc and combination of condi and power dmg is gonna be too much if u can’t burst them. And you won’t be able to burst them if they kite u properly and use their pure invulnerability at the right time.
ranged weapons and/or berserker mode is needed (just cause it gives u longer reach on ur attacks).
What about axe/shield gs berserker?
Hardcounter is rifle/gs – arms/disc/berserk with sig of might + signet mastery.Have fun being unblockable for 12 sec.
If you dont like losing def, you can drop disc but you might wanna grab rune of traveler then.
Whats the rune you use on that?
I run strength runes.
The build does take some practice,grab fury util aswell.Start off early with using fury to fill adren,autoattack a bit to get rid of his block and start bursting,use might util when needed.Kite Alot,only switch to gs when he jumps u,burst gs and whirl out,rush and take distance to swap back to rifle and burst again.
Another issue im having with rifle builds are that it turns also gs warriors into being a counter, perhaps trade the axe/shield for hammer?
You shouldnt be running axe/shield with rifle..Grab Gs.
Do you have a link to the build?
As a warrior main I hate the greatsword lol, especially in pvp. People praise it for being good, and in PVE and duels to a certain extent maybe, but greatsword is a toxic weapon.
Everytime the greatsword becomes the most relevant weapon, warriors are often outclassed. Greatsword builds generally aren’t stable, very telepgraphed attacks. Out of the 4 years ive been playing this game, there was one little instance where the greatsword was good, and even then it was outclassed by axebow war. Last year we had a brief rampage gs meta, but were only good because of rampage. Once rampage was nerfed, greatsword could not hold its own.
Hardcounter is rifle/gs – arms/disc/berserk with sig of might + signet mastery.Have fun being unblockable for 12 sec.
If you dont like losing def, you can drop disc but you might wanna grab rune of traveler then.
Whats the rune you use on that?
I run strength runes.
The build does take some practice,grab fury util aswell.Start off early with using fury to fill adren,autoattack a bit to get rid of his block and start bursting,use might util when needed.Kite Alot,only switch to gs when he jumps u,burst gs and whirl out,rush and take distance to swap back to rifle and burst again.
Another issue im having with rifle builds are that it turns also gs warriors into being a counter, perhaps trade the axe/shield for hammer?
Yeah, warriors are better now than they were 4 months ago for sure. What’s the context where you’re trying to beat them? Duels, spvp, something else?
Also, do you know what they’re throwing at you? Is it heavy on traps, plus a longbow?
Yeah longbow and traps give me a hard time, but I also know that since Ive been gone I dont have a warrior/berserker build that is relevant xD got any builds?
Caedmon has it right for that, then. By using a rifle, you can avoid walking through their traps and then you can use Signet of Might and Signet Mastery to ruin their projectile hate.
If I was building for that purpose (i.e. specifically for duels), I might pair the rifle with a+sh to provide some nice reflect for their longbow and a hard hitting, up close weapon in case they teleport to you. I’d go full scale damage, which means I’d personally opt for scholar runes.
Im liking rifle so far, ironically it still has the same issue, good against everything but DH lol. I forget which virtue it is on DH (the one that puts the shield up) nullifies the unblockable signet. Unblockable gunflame and it couldnt do any damage for the duration.
Yeah, warriors are better now than they were 4 months ago for sure. What’s the context where you’re trying to beat them? Duels, spvp, something else?
Also, do you know what they’re throwing at you? Is it heavy on traps, plus a longbow?
Yeah longbow and traps give me a hard time, but I also know that since Ive been gone I dont have a warrior/berserker build that is relevant xD got any builds?
Hardcounter is rifle/gs – arms/disc/berserk with sig of might + signet mastery.Have fun being unblockable for 12 sec.
If you dont like losing def, you can drop disc but you might wanna grab rune of traveler then.
Whats the rune you use on that?
I took a 4 month break so I don’t have a good build this patch, but I find myself struggling against dragonhunters. Are warriors still decent? If so, whats a good build right now that can deal with dragonhunters?
Which build are you using? CI or RR carrion/viper?
The carrior RR build is what most people use, unless you are facing a team full of necro.
Originally I tried the meta macebow with wanderers, do you have links to those builds you mentioned? Im looking for one that excels at 1v1s
I’ve tried the one on metabattle, usually I love the tier 1 warrior builds but this one just doesn’t put in the work. The damage seems too slow and still gets destroyed by marauder warriors.
Are there any warrior builds that excel in 1v1s this meta? Or which do you think is the strongest?
Yeah, I don’t really see what the OP is saying. Just to illustrate one thing:
I don’t actually see how build diversity is LESS if you have more options for traits. From where I sit, you have the same 5 traits you had before AND one more. Not sure if the OP even understands that there are some builds that are still optimal with the core professions.
There is some other things there, but it’s not really worth arguing with people waving the ‘dying game’ banner anymore. if it’s old to you and you’re bored, do us a favour and take a break. I know the OP want’s everyone to chime in and agree with him, just like everyone else wanting reassurance that they are correct with all these things that GW2 is doing wrong and killing the game with.
I mean, LAWL at pointing to metabattle builds as evidence for a lack of diversity and failed game elements … you do know that metabattle builds have zero to do with diversity right? The lack of a section in metabattle for Strongholds could mean any number of things that aren’t related to Strongholds being a failure right?
Adding an extra traitline sounds great on paper, “Ooohhh I have more options!” Then you take into account that the traitline is not an addition to variety, but superior. Dragonhunter virtues are just straight up superior to core guardian, you get more options, then you find out that the elite spec traitline has good synergy with specific traitlines. So you wanna experiment, try something different, but even considering dropping the elite spec is a flat out downgrade. This is why earning elite specs are more end game in PVE, they’re designed to be STRONG, as in, something you work for to improve yourself.
Run condi warrior without berserker, run marauder guardian without dragonhunter, don’t use bristleback or smokescale, it’s not like they have superior health and overall damage to other pets right?
The hypocrisy of “Not enough diversity”, then going to say but “there’s not even a metabattle guide section”. Pick one ?
The game has problems sure, diversity is one of them. However, what i think most people find the more annoying facet to be is cadence. Season 2 spoiled us greatly in the fact that we had very frequent releases, fixes and changes. Now, we’re doing the new MMO-hype of Quarterly updates. This is likely what’s driving people away, just as it does when people have to wait for expansions.
Sure the systemic issues still reside, but ultimately once those are fixed people will return. See again, the waiting game is whats actually killing the game. The longer issues sit on the table, in development, indefinitely suspended etc… the worse shape the game begins to take on the communities within it.
You have proven my point by associating metabattle with only one working build by making me choose lol. Two years ago I could go on metabattle for 2-3 mesmer builds, condi, meta power shatter and lockdown. Same for warrior. Now people associate metabattle with the only working build of the class they want which is NOT a good thing.
Stronghold has been out since October, this is a new game mode in pvp and should at least have a section of working builds on metabattle, even raids and GvG have their own section on metabattle. Stronghold is so ignored that nobody is playing it competitively, Anet isn’t pushing it, its almost like it doesn’t even exist. Yeah that new game mode that was advertised before release, no competitive play lol
WvW: definitely no where close on dying, we are seeing huge queues across most servers on peak hours. WvW is in amazing shape after spring update.
Stronghold: Anet need to increase the reward for it, the main reason people don’t play stronghold is because the time and reward is not up to par and people generally want faster games.
I can agree this was fixed after the spring update, HoT came out in October, that is a long time to make a game mode playable again.
This could be viewed as another “OHH NUU THE GAME IS DYING” post, but I’m not posting this our of hate, I respect this game and the fun it has brought me and my guild. I’m posting this because I want the game to grow, and HoT in the long run, did more damage than good. For every new shiny feature added, something else was dismantled and left unattended for months. My opnion I could say holds a little weight as I have been here since the very beginning, even going as far as guild wars 1. So what happened?
Let’s take a small review of some the features that were prevalent in the last two years that have slowly been taken away:
PVP: Build diversity is gone, two years ago I could make my own builds and people would try weird things and have some success with it, diversity was slowly dying before, but HoT introduced elite specs and have shoehorned everyone into taking that traitline. Warrior was flat out unusable for MONTHS, Esports was a disaster with the overpowered bunker meta, yeah that was their foot in the door. No creativity anymore.
WvW: In better shape now, but HoT’s launch killed nearly all the maps except for EB in which everyone was crammed into, some servers just straight up died such as IoJ.
Stronghold: A new game mode and it has been almost completely ignored, there isn’t even a category for it on metabattle because it’s that forgettable.
New choices: A lot of the new amulets and runes that were prevalent in pvp were removed, undeniably some made for too much versatility but it’s also strange that these new choices I was excited about were removed from the game again because they were too strong, making people go back to picking the same amulets and runes as before but with even less choices on traitlines.
Guild Hall: A fun feature, looks great and a hangout but honestly, what motivates guild members to donate their gold to this? Exclusive mini pets? Other than visuals, I don’t see anything the guild hall really offers that is truly unique you couldn’t find out on your own. I know it’s a place for guild unity, but people want to feel like theyre getting something out of it.
These are just a few examples, but something needs to be done to push this game further, an expansion shouldn’t hurt two out of the three game modes.
I think they need to bring the game more in line with what it was two years ago. It was slower for sure and the only abilities that could really hit you for 10-15k was a buffed hundred blades or ambush, and they were more difficult to land and easier to avoid, as well as the player sacrificing a lot in order to do that. Right now you have lots of possibilities for delivering 10k plus in less than a second and it makes the PvP experience less about tactics and brainpower and more about spammy nonsense.
Obviously class balance needs a lot of work, when teams would rather stack 3 of the same class than diversify its a pretty clear sign of problematic class design and balance.
It’s funny you bring this up because I’m going to compare it to another competitive game I used to play, Yugioh. The first few years of Yugioh was actually a lot of fun to watch and compete in because it was slower, but very strategic. To get that good powerful monster you built your deck around required a lot of building up, having to get monsters on the field while being limited to only summoning one per turn.
Nowadays, people have lost interest because they introduced things like synchro summons and xyz summons, remember those monsters that required a lot of building up and planning to get on the field? All of those cards are obsolete because the new xyz cards you can basically just throw three monsters in one turn, eliminating the good pacing and strategy for both players and viewers.
I think there are many things, let me cite the 2 which I think are the most important:
- build diversity: in most popular e-sport, the team composition is an important factor. Look at LoL, the time spent at the champion choice. Good news: we are finally back at a point where we have different team compositions! Also the team composition should imply a different playstyle. This is actually the whole point: watching different team comps should mean that each game look different, so that watching 8 games in a row (current pro league format) does not feel like 8 times the same game. In gw2, we see that with thieves and to some extent with mesmer. They bring things which no other classes bring (insane mobility for thief, portal/moa for mesmer) and which affect the overall gameplay. I don’t feel it as much with other classes and this is sad. Finally, LoL has more than 9 champions… Gw2 has a build system with the potential of some classes playing very different roles but barely uses it. Now that inter class balance has been (almost) brought back, I think a-net should focus on intra-class balance. One big thing which would help is that builds should not be good at everything like they currently are. The bruiser meta is clearly more boring than a roamer+bunker+DPS meta. Currently, all builds are sustaining themselves, doing good damage and control, etc… This reduces the influence of team comp.
- Game progress. The game play of conquest is fairly linear for the most part. People fight, fight fight fight fight, sometime they die, sometime they get caps. To attract viewership, you need a less linear story. Look again at LoL, there is a lot of setting up, and then sudden burst of fighting. You could argue that gw2 has more actions, considering that in between the fights, LoL is fairly… uninteresting almost. But this allows to have this big bursts of interest. If you look at gw2, the most interesting things to watch is precisely when the gameplay is less linear. A big lord/boss push, a big rez/stomp event, basically any moment where suddenly the stakes get higher. The problem is that the lord/boss push only work in “close” games, which are not that frequent in gw2 (probably because of low competitive population). On the other hand, I think the downstate mechanics of gw2 is really the big saving factor. Those are often big moments in the fight, dangerous for both sides and where big outcomes can emerge (team wipes). I guess stronghold was created to improve on the linear conquest experience, but it needs a lot of refining. One map which I think would work well for that is “Spirit Watch”. I know it is currently not the most “loved” map, but the one competitive game I saw on it (AG) was really fun. The orb push was really nice, with players pushing, then abandoning the orb to heal while another one takes it, etc…
So in summary:
- improve build diversity, and make sure that different team composition imply different strategies and gameplay.
- make games less linear. This is mostly the map design. In Foefire, the lord works great but only for otherwise even teams. In Forest, the boss are usually only contested at the very end in very even games (or when they are killed before it is usually uncontested). Temple often sadly ends up being 5 infinitely contested objectives, but is still often an interesting map. Kyhlo has nothing… Spirit watch could be a lot of fun and I would love to have it in competitive rotations. Skyhammer… meh. Stronghold concept could work, but needs a lot of refining. I don’t think the current SH map works at all.
I really think if they pushes stronghold and refined it a bit would make for some very interesting competitive battles because there can be strategy to it, I’ve seen moments where unique plays do make it very interesting in close fights such as a good use of mesmer portal or working with a teammate’s unique abilities. Seeing more professions getting played, build diversity and not just focusing one one game mode (conquest and stronghold) would be great assets to focus on. As much as I complained about the whole esports bomb, I do it because I love this game, I know when something isn’t working and I want it to be good because I’ve seen it good. It was just an awful first impression and brought many new viewers one of the worst and monotonous metas to date, imagine you never playing gw2 at all and your impression to the competitive scene was the bunker meta lol
To be honest, Guild Wars 2 has the potential (in my opinion) to be an enjoyable game to watch competitively despite streaming being very low on Twitch (more people are watching Runescape lol). I’ve seen moments where this game had very interesting tournament plays and watched before they tried to actually push it into mainstream esports. The problem? HoT hit PVP hard at the worst time imaginable and all these people for the worst impression on the game.
When HoT launched their season 1 pro leagues, everyone’s first impression was the tedious bunker meta and not only that, but it’s right when elite specs killed build diversity. I will go as far to say the game was more competitively interesting when it wasn’t trying. The reason why I find games like LoL interesting to watch is because while there is a defined meta, people are trying new champions/builds and have some success with it as well as there being a lot of action and strategy.
So can they do? Even though the damage is done, they need to bring back build diversity, and I know they don’t like this term as it’s not the easiest for them to do, but PVP needs its own balancing, especially at this point. Push different game modes, Stronghold was forgotten competitively and has potential to be an interesting variation from conquest, but you need to make it more action and strategy oriented.
To put this in perspective, more people are watching RUNESCAPE being streamed than Guild Wars 2. Really think about that lol.
Something really needs to be done, I love this game but they really dropped the ball on esports. People just aren’t interested in watching.
Yes, it’s a good thing that most professions are in meta, but without diversity, it really means that only 8 specs are meta, and neither of them are actually balanced because of the increasing powercreep each patch. If they don’t nerf those specs to bring them in line with other, weaker specs, diversity will be mostly minimal.
In my opinion, increased diversity will be a sign of better balance.
I agree with this, I’m still waiting on diversity, I just think it’s a good start that almost all the classes are at least getting played. I’d rather have that than thief, warrior, etc. being completely useless like before.
This is the first time in awhile where I have seen the majority of classes be in the meta, and DH while not competitive, isn’t horrible like let’s say, pre patch warrior/berserker.
There’s still the topic of diversity that needs to be addressed, but the fact that all of the classes except one are getting played is a good site to see.
I have a feeling looking at the ranger sustain changes we can’t expect anymore from them. Ill play this game for fun occasionally but not seriously now.
Even though they’re two different games, since the whole esports thing is getting pushed so much let’s compare it to one of the biggest of that category, League of Legends.
Of course there are some god tier champions in that game, but out of 100+ champions people are using most if not all of them so you’re constantly seeing different builds, strategies and surprises. Pokemon, again, you see top tier pokemon patterns, but generally playing the game not in tournaments, you see people try different strategies in altering abilities, IVs and variations with some success. This is what guild wars 2 lacks right now, it is literally one good build per class (not even all the classes) and if you do not use that build you’re going to under perform. I don’t count changing one or two traits or an amulet as a “new” build.
People, people. do NOT blame metabattle. Metabattle is just a hub for builds that are a)most popular, b) found to be strong/ top tier in either game mode. People are not forced into playing only 1 build because of metabattle….thats Anets fault.
I’ve said it a few time and i’ll say it again. It was the dumbing down of traits patch, last June, the one before HOT, that killed build diversity in this game.
We went from 6 different options per Trait advancement (Adept, GM, major etc) to just 3, so the choice of 1/3 for the best trait is much more obvious compared to 1/6, meaning less diversity and chance to theory craft.
The addition of elite specs has also killed diversity. I think people are really annoyed that ANET told us elite specs would not be indispensable, but on par with current trait lines, merely providing a new play style etc. This is nonsense. Every elite spec enhances the class so much they are imperative. This, again, has dumbed down our diversity options, because we now have one trait line that everyone must take to remain competitive and for most classes, that elite spec defines how the class is played; (power hammer on scrapper, tempest is clearly support, druid is clearly support etc)
It’s just sad there are 6 trait lines per class, yet only 3 are every used. There is no more surprises, adaptation, play style adjustments etc, just 5 – 6 viable classes with 6 viable builds. This is NOT diversity.
Metabattle is just a place to record working builds competitively which I think is a helpful tool, and while not every build was tier 1 there were at least options. You would see warriors running all signets and actually be good at it while the meta was axebow. Despite thief countering emta power shatter mes, lockdown mesmer and condi mesmer made their way in as being at least good alternatives. There were some obviously broken builds (turret engi, D/D ele, etc.) but people got creative with their builds.
Now it’s the same thing, every time. Guardians are ALWAYS dragonhunters with no burning, no AH healing guards. People aren’t afraid of trying different builds, the issue is that they do not work. If they don’t want separate balancing for everything, they need to at least balance the elite spec traitlines separately for pvp. They were designed to be OP because they are end game content that you work hard for with extra mechanics. I’m not happy with this because it has made pvp such a stale experience now, and I was already salty before because I got this expansion in october and it downgraded my “warrior” (barely considered a class lol) until just recently and even then it’s not fantastic, just decent.
I’ve mentioned this before, as I would like GW2 to be taken seriously for e sports and be enjoyable, but I would say it’s arguably less diverse and competitive than over a year ago.
Remember when guardians could run meditations and AH in the same meta and not be considered trash? Sure meditation wasn’t tier 1, but people came up with interesting stat combinations and did their own thing for casual play, it was fun seeing different things. Shoutbow, axebow, signet warriors, etc. and remember when you looked up mesmer and had to decide between being cancer condi, meta power shatter or the inbetween lockdown mesmer?
We need that back, sure there were some OP builds that needed a nerf, but people could at least build DIFFERENT things. Sometimes a build sneaks in the back but for the most part its the same meta rev, scrapper, druid, etc. with barely any variation. Elite specs were designed to be OP, that’s why they’re mostly end game content in PVE. People wouldn’t want them if they were worse than the actual traitlines they already had.
While I can say it was disrespectful to Anet, I think it was something they needed to hear. Similar to Helseth cutting gw2 off of his streaming, tarcis no longer playing professionally, etc. I love Anet and GW2, but there’s been so many steps backwards lately. Warrior is still trash after almost one year, tries to push esports and yet builds become even more shoehorned into one build, only a few classes get played and its always rev/ele and scrapper.
It just really pains me that diversity has been gone for so long, people used to get really creative with their builds and run weird stuff like signet warriors, banner warriors, axebow, etc. in the same patch. Me and my guild have been playing LoL because the game has gotten very stale competitive wise. LoL can be a salty place, but to their credit the 100+ champs are all getting played in some form with success. I don’t want to admit it, but it has really gotten stale and a lot of these players just aren’t taking it seriously anymore. I would dare to even say it was more competitive when they didn’t try and push esports.
yeah so warrior finally finds a decent build (not even meta) after two seasons of sitting out and it gets trashed this soon?
I don’t care if chrono was running rampant, nerf chrono without removing new features. This is ridiculous, people are just going to go back to the bruiser scrapper anyway, same scrapper, rev, ele. This has to be a joke, I’m not usually THIS salty, but warrior BETTER have some kitten good buffs coming up soon or you’re gonna have more people like Argi who don’t even take it seriously anymore. There’s already a lack of build diversity, removing even more choices is not the way to fix that.
Remember a few years ago when people could run signet warriors, tanky banner warriors, gs warriors, axebow warriors? Condi mesmer, lockdown mesmer, power shatter mesmer? Remember when people could actually come up with strange builds that could work to an extent? Yeah, when are we going to get THAT back?
In the entire competitive scene, there has only ever been a handful of players who have taken DH seriously and attempted to run one in a tournament. What I’m wondering is, what do you guys think it would take to actually make DH viable (but not OP), even assuming a perfect world where pvp/pve/wvw balance was separated?
Buffs to guardian condi application? Buffs to certain weapons? More buffs to core guardian? I’m interested to hear your ideas.
This is just my dumb opinion, at least the damage is pretty balanced now but they either need more cc, support, group aegis etc. something to give them an identity.
Tempest is the undeniable support/healer as it’s very good at it, power rev is great as damage, gives buffs and has excellent mobility. DH definitely has some potential, but I kinda see it more as a slow, one trick pony. Their mobility isn’t all that great, their power damage can be decent as well as group cc via traps and when you take something like marauder they aren’t the tankiest spec in the game. They need to bring something new to the table, or at least a unique combination.
I know RR is a thing and it’s decent, pretty much anything is an improvement over warrior’s competitive state since the rampage nerf last year. AH is decent, my issue is that warrior/berserker brings nothing to the team besides…. well, dps.
You could argue that is enough, but even with this popular RR build I don’t see it offering anything to the team. Thief is purely dps too, but it also has excellent mobility, DH is also dps, but with traps and virtues it’s also doing some cc while providing minor buffs on the side in addition to the damage.
Warrior has decent damage, but with mediocre mobility, mostly single target stuns, relying on an enemy to stun you most of the time in order to have “good” sustain from RR which also means not clicking skills offensively most of the time but instead using them for defense, I can’t think of anything condi zerker does that chrono doesn’t do better. This isn’t to slam on chronos, I play one and I love it, but what exactly does a warrior/berserker do differently/bring new to the table? The mechanics of the popular build seems mostly selfish
I wish him the best because is IS funny and a good player,but when it comes to top mesmer players I’ve always favored listening to Supcutie.
He is very informative and I’ve always preferred the way he represents himself and tips. In the bunker meta when bunker chrono was top tier, Supcutie gave advice on how to be a good tier 1 bunker chrono which as cancer as it was, would be the ideal build for serious chrono players and helped me trememndously.
Helseth made a tutorial during this same time but for basically double ranged shatter mes (power dps) which was obsolete. It puzzled me why a tutorial was made for a build that won’t get used or is viable. You could argue for the “skill factor” but let’s be honest here, if you want to win in the most efficient way, you would take the best build for your team cancer or not. When I come I see top tier players, I come to see the current best, not living in the past.
This is in no way slamming on Helseth because he is entertaining to watch and a godly player for sure, but when it came to learning/educating myself on the mesmer class from professionals, Supcutie did a better job.
Flaming Flurry also hits hard without any condi damage, even if it’s still not what you’ll usually want to be spending your adrenal on.
Well maybe it is still worth to take sword as a power warrior. The physical dmg Flaming Flurry deals is negligible and the burning is much less as if u were running condi but still has the highest base dmg among the condis. Bow doesn’t have the best primal burst either so there’s that too.
If I used F. Flurry as power I’d definitely cancel the skill out as soon as i get my trait procs and start using other skills(even autoattack is better)I’d try this with Demolisher’s Amulet, maybe Marauder’s. Strong sustain and damage, great mobility.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR8ejMdQZIWFC2dAnIWqCs3Rbr91q0Did5AkCQDIAA-TZBFAB3v/wCHBAGOIAA8AAE4CAAAVariants: pack runes, dolyak signet, perhaps headbutt, blood reaction trait, sigils like intelligence or paralyzation(30% stun duration applies to taunt too!)
Instead of fire sigil I like taking blood on most classes but on warrior you are capable of gaining up to 5 additional adrenaline on hit. So with both sigils proccig technically you can gain 7 adrenaline instead of 1. Blood gives 0 adren cause it is lifesteal.
I don’t want to sound negative, as I can acknowledge the state warrior is in so far is a step up. My issue is warrior still seems to “suck.”
Revenant is still a better power option, after trying out the condi builds it actually does solid damage with decent survivability if played right, the problem? I’m a mesmer/warrior main and my chrono simply does it’s job better in pretty much every way if you break it down.
-Very similar condi burst and healing
-much better mobility, 25% movement speed, blink, portal, etc.
-Headbutt stuns for a few seconds, moa disables a player for 10 seconds
-Takes about half the effort to get the same job done and better
I love chrono, this isnt about bashing on chrono/mesmer, but chrono right now feels very fluid and mobile, warrior feels slower and generally clunky when you compare them. pretty much just waiting to trigger RR which is a neat concept but feels like a downgrade.
Maybe someone will find out something very OP with warrior, thats what I hope lol or at least good enough for the meta. Something to give warrior a more complete concept, I feel like theres potential there.