Guild Wars 2

Sweet video +1

A bit of a shame that you didn´t have any footage vs. Warriors.

Watching how you handled those Mesmers made up for it though. Made me realize that I panic-dodge way too much against them (probably because my brain goes on insta-TILT once I see the purple butterflies lol).

Yes please! But I doubt it will happen, at least not in form of a live-stream since I assume they are on tight schedule at the moment.

Maybe a CDI-Style discussion thread with Robert Gee here on the Necro Subforum? That´ll do the job I think.

He could thoroughly explain the design direction/limitations for the class as he envisions it and we could present all the suggestions accumulated here over the years in a structured and compact manner.

Bhawb.7408:

I play PvP primarily (now) because Necro in PvE is absolute garbage. I do understand that shouts bring very little to PvE, but frankly Necro will never fit PvE until they change PvE. And acting like I don’t understand our position or problems in other game modes is ridiculous, especially accusing me of being a “PvP guy” when the majority of my in-game time is WvW followed by PvE.

Don´t get me wrong, I kinda admire your enduring optimism (no sarcasm) in the face of Anets stubbornness/cluelessness/incompetence to properly address the problems our class suffers from since launch.

But let´s be real.

There have been SO MANY great suggestions over the years in this forum on how to improve Necro overall without breaking the class completely in a particular game-mode and the majority of those suggestions got either ignored, weren´t perceived at all, were implemented elsewhere (looking at you “Assassin´s Presence”), let alone commented on by a dev (communication pls!! can we have it?!).
So, shall I name a couple? Here are some random ones I´d personally still like to see:

• Make Unholy Fervor´s damage modifier a flat 10% vs. vulnerable foes (not just axe skills)
• Make Quickening Thirst´s second effect a 5% damage modifier while above threshold (instead of recharge reduction for dagger skills)
• Make CPC block projectiles
• Make Signets work in Shroud
• Buff siphon damage (incl. Vamp Aura) across the board
• 3 stacks of stability for 4sec on Spectral Walk
• New GM trait that breaks stun and gives 4sec of Invulnerability upon DS entry on a 60sec CD
• Give us Plague Blast on land
• Make Dhuumfire the good old Incendiary Powder copy-paste it used to be
• Buff Lich Form´s #2-#5, same for Plague Form´s #1 and #3 (reduced cast times, more condi application, whatever makes them more attractive to use once in a while)
• Make Dark Path a ground-targeted Shadowstep when PoC is traited
• Reduce cast times on Focus Skills
• Fix Minion AI (duh)
• B U F F A X E S O I T I S N O T T H E W O R S T W E A P O N E V E R
  etc.etc. the list goes on and on.

Bottom-line, don´t try to sweet talk Reaper and don´t try to make it appear to be something it clearly will not be. Until the issues of the core profession have been addressed people will keep kittening and rightly so imo. Neither Reaper nor potentially crappy elite specs of other classes will change that.

Until then, keep your expectations low and keep screaming your heads off, maybe we will be heard at last.

Wow :O you, sir, just made my day +1

Now it all makes sense…

Falcon.8713:

3. We already have a warhorn

Not gonna lie, that one made me chuckle a bit :>

I think it is save to say that stacking more than 1 or 2 players of the same profession in a group is generally not optimal, especially when you stack a class that only has one unique and super weak team-wide buff (Vampiric Aura) and very limited access to active defenses (Blinds, …).

@Slapinator: Problem is that we can´t really provide unique and/or potent team support without seriously gimping ourselves and we aren´t really good at bunkering either, because our ability to face-tank heavily depends on our LF generation, which we can´t do we are getting CCed into oblivion (apart from popping SA and hope that it´ll be enough lol).

So what are we good at in sPvP? Corrupting Boons and sending back Conditions, both of which only really work because SoS exists in its current form, period.
This whole theme of Necros being “selfish and slow-but-unstoppable harbingers of death” may sound sweet, but just doesn´t work out at all.

And a set of Shouts that range from mediocre to unusable doesn´t help either X)

Tim.6450:

Don’t be so negative. Tempest does not seem appeling at the moment.

Compared to what? The current DD builds? I agree, but if you already have access to a borderline broken-as-kitten build you aren´t exactly in need for improvement

nekretaal.6485:

The reaper shouts are awful. Was anybody ever excited by any of them?

Oh yeah, one of them is a stun break and might see use because the Necromancer’s competing stun breaks are garbage.

Afaik they removed the stun break from “Suffer!”, so yeah…. Edit: Just realized you are talking about YaaW, so nvm.

The heal and the Vuln Shout might be ok-ish, but other than that I can´t understand why anyone would be excited for “Summon up to 5 jagged turds!”, “Suffer from this extremely long CD!” or “Pls interrupt me while I channel this 2sec. cast time elite-skill!”.

Rym.1469:

Skoigoth.9238:

You forgot the (presumably spamable) quickness + super speed =P

Hardly spammable. Impossible Odds is good, but has to be used with some plan.

Every second of that quickness and super speed costs you 2 seconds in all cooldowns and Sword, especially Off-hand abilities, are most expensive out of all Revenant weaponsets.

Meanwhile Mesmer has 3s quickness on 5s CD upon any interruption.

This is a “omg Rev OP Necro so ded”-thread, of course I was deliberately exaggerating a bit

But still, since this is about PvE and by the looks of it the sword AA will the bread and butter of the Revenant´s DPS (the other skills seemed rather situational to me during the livestream), I think the personal quickness uptime will be nothing to sneeze at.

It´s not that big of deal I think. Since only a fraction of the player-base visits the forums, the survey isn´t representative anyways. I also think we all more or less agree that dagger/x and staff are probably our most commonly used weapons right now.

Other than that the survey provides a really nice overview on which skills/weapons are currently underused/deemed worthless and that is important imo.

Yeah, the changes kinda screwed the results. Now it looks like nobody uses Dagger

iSmack.1768:

1 – Yea, I thought about it afterwards, but I wanted to keep it general, just want to see which skills are more popular and which ones are forgotten across all builds. Also, this being my first survey, how would I add that? (Or just grab a list of builds and make multiple choice?)

2 – And for those, I forgot them there >_< I don’t know if I remove them it’ll mess up all the entries or not

Thank you for the feedback

Nah, don´t worry about it, I was nit-picking =)

I think most people wont be bothered by those things and will just tick all the skills/weapons they use frequently, regardless of builds (that is what I did at least).

As for the results so far, not really any surprises there if you ask me.

You forgot the (presumably spamable) quickness + super speed =P

Cool Survey! Just two small things…

• Maybe you should ask for current build*s* in the subheading since most people don´t run identical builds across different game-modes

• I found it funny that you have Spear and Trident on the list of weapons =P

Hmm I´d say Warriors and Eles outclass us as bruisers by a lot. They have more mobility, more sustain and more damage.

We have SoS =P that´s it.

TheLastNobody.8319:

Skoigoth.9238:

I think keeping it in Soul Reaping is fine, it just needs to not suck so much. My suggestion would be to just copy-paste Incendiary Powder (Engi GM: 4sec Burn on Crit, 33% longer Burn duration) and see how it works out.

That’s what dhuumfire originally was I think…only, can’t remeber if it had the ICD or not. Think it did.

Yes, that is pretty much what it used to be. I´m not entirely sure about the ICD either, but I also think it had one.

Edit: Incendiary Powder currently has an ICD (10 sec?) btw., forgot to mention that in my first post.

I think keeping it in Soul Reaping is fine, it just needs to not suck so much. My suggestion would be to just copy-paste Incendiary Powder (Engi GM: 4sec Burn on Crit, 33% longer Burn duration) and see how it works out.

Salamander.2504:

Skoigoth.9238:

<snip>

Just to play devil’s advocate (because I don’t actually disagree with you), DS may not offer the same type of invuln, but the low CD and relative ease of increasing your LF pool means it offers much more flexibility. You can’t eat 1 big burst as well, but you can constantly eat little ones. E.g., I literally cannot remember the last time I let a thief’s backstab or a Guardian’s WW hit my actual health pool. So, while a necro perhaps isn’t on par as a teamfighter, it really shines in solo point defense/offense (1v1, 1v2) situations where you can easily watch for telegraphed skills and manage your health bar. Just my 2c, and perhaps what the dev’s were going for.

Well, if it isn´t a big burst but a small one, it isn´t really a burst, right?

But yes, I see what you mean. It´s not like I think the Shroud mechanic is totally dysfunctional. I just don´t think it works well enough to replace actual invulns/blocks/evades altogether.
Moreover, to deny one single class (!), out of eight classes available, access to a wide range of mechanics that to a large degree define GW2´s combat system AND not giving that class something truly awesome in exchange, to make up for this deficit, is a weird and totally inexplicable design choice to me.

It makes me sad panda.

As it stands, I don´t think you can truly compare DS to invulns and the like.

Shroud just doesn´t offer the same protection against burst damage like actual invulnerability (Warrior, Ele, Ranger, Guardian, Mesmer, Engineer), blocks (Warrior, Ele, Ranger, Guardian, Mesmer, Engineer) and evades (Thief, Warrior, Ele, Ranger, Mesmer) do.

Combine that with little to no combat mobility and BOOM, you got yourself a Necromancer.

Sooo… necroing red post threads is now meta in the competitive PvF community?

Sweet.

Aaaah, the stench of rotten flesh!

Edit: Is this like “the new thing” ppl do now on this subforum?

Please… don´t bring eSports into this discussion. It feels so ridiculous in the context of GW2

billtherebel.8127:

Skoigoth.9238:

I don´t think they are trying to nerf us into oblivion, they don´t have reason to do so. We are and always were bottom-tier (arguably).

No,in the beta and at launch Necros were OP.Deathshroud was ridicoulusly strong…

Maybe in beta idk, I started playing at release so I can´t say much about that.
But OP at launch? If I remember correctly a lot of people considered everything that wasn´t their own class OP back then, because nobody had a clue So yeah, maybe we were better off back then, but I still hold that we certainly never were a particularly desired class, “top-tier” or anything close to that.

I can only speak from personal experience and exchange with friends/guildmates/people on the forum and to me Necromancer has pretty much always felt underwhelming when compared to other classes.
As I noted in another thread, the only things that keep me from abandoning Necro altogether are that it was my very first character, that I still like the art style of the class and that enjoy the class on a very basic level of game-play.

And to me that is kittening sad :´(

I don´t think they are trying to nerf us into oblivion, they don´t have reason to do so. We are and always were bottom-tier (arguably).

I think they are actually trying to fix the class, but their baby steps approach just doesn´t work out very well if you ask me. I really wish they´d man up a bit and go for more radical changes, be a bit more eager to try out new and bold things.

Yeah, why Shiro?

Well, we already have access to piercing, so what exactly do you mean OP? Ricochet hits? Small AoE-blast on hit? Two/three projectiles per skill activation?
Would be all nice and dandy for us, but it wouldn´t really address any of the more pressing issues the class has currently.

Viable, yes, pretty much everything is viable in this game (viable in the sense of “you can make it work”).

But is it a solid build choice? Nope, apart from open world PvE and casual PvP, I don´t think so.

First things first… not restricting yourself by having one´s head stuck up your own kitten (aka exclusively looking at one side of an argument) usually helps to get a better perspective on things. In this case, the game as a whole, the place each class has in it and the different interactions between them. This isn´t a “healthy discussion” as long as we try to turn a blind eye on the bad stuff there is, don´t take a look at what other classes have and don´t put the things discussed into context (e.g. different game-modes).

That being said, I´ve been struggling to keep a “neutral” view on all things concerning Necromancer for a while now, but not without reason I think.

I find it really hard not to focus on at least the fundamental issues our class has, given the circumstances. We´ve had to deal with these issues ever since the launch of this game (mobility, active defenses, meaningful team support etc., you know the drill) and in my book all attempts of solving some of these issues have proven to be futile.

Basically the only thing that keeps me from relegating my Necro back to camping ore nodes and storing trash cluttering up my bank is that it was my very first character and thus has a lot of good memories attached to it. Exploring the world for the first time, fighting through dungeons in green gear and with horrible builds, dabbling around in PvP/WvW when nobody had a clue etc. etc..
Also, I still like the dark magician-flair very much and can appreciate the class on a very basic game-play level. It´s a rather straightforward class and I consider that a good thing.

Sadly, that´s all the love I have left for my Necromancer currently.

Because… DEATH SHROUD!!! Second health bar!! Yay! We are already pretty much invincible because of it right? Right??!

No? :/ Ok…

fixit.7189:

In GW2…they force you into only one: meta DPS.

They do not force you to do anything, don´t be ridiculous. You can do any content you like, using whatever gear/class/build you like, provided you know what you are doing.

Back in the day, shortly after Nomad`s gear was introduced, I did a (nearly) full Nomad´s dungeon/fractal tour with my buddies (two of them used Cleric´s) and I can assure you, we didn´t have any problems. Of course it took longer than usual, but it wasn´t hard at all. In fact it was easy as hell, no risk of dying whatsoever.

Kordash.2197:

Skoigoth.9238:

dlonie.6547:

Only if allies can pop the bubbles for cleansing.

GET IT? HA!

Cleansing is boring, how about some classic female-ninja-WTF-bubble-magic instead?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InY3SRgWMdw

Whaaaaat the kitten is that ?

Exactly! =)

dlonie.6547:

Only if allies can pop the bubbles for cleansing.

GET IT? HA!

Cleansing is boring, how about some classic female-ninja-WTF-bubble-magic instead?

Ansau.7326:

What they did is to change the limited roles of tank/healer to a more wide roles of control/support. But they didn’t eliminate them, just now healing/tanking were not a dedicated role, but a part of a bigger role.
This are the definitions of the changes:

Heal: Don’t belittle the SUPPORT role by calling it heal. Healing is the least dynamic kind of support there is. It is reactive instead of proactive. Healing is for when you are already losing. In Guild Wars 2 we prefer that you support your allies before they take a beating. Sure, there are some healing spells in Guild Wars 2, but they make up a small portion of the support lines that are spread throughout the professions. Other kinds of support include buffs, active defense, and cross-profession combinations.

Tank: This is where Guild Wars 2 makes the biggest break from the traditional MMO setup. Tanking is the most rudimentary form of the most important combat fundamental, CONTROL. We wanted to build upon what we think makes control such an important part of dynamic combat. Control is the only thing versatile enough to get away from the rock-paper-scissors gameplay of other MMOs.

Pretty much this.

I think it´s weird that so many apparently experienced people still have such a narrow understanding of GW2´s combat system. Both, all sorts of support and “pseudo-tanking” in the form of active defenses and CC, are vital parts of the game.

As Colin in his clarification post and many, many people before him aptly stated: The problem with GW2´s PvE is not the combat system, it is the content.

The idea of retroactively implementing a hard-trinity based combat system is ridiculously unrealistic and certainly won´t make all the issues the game currently has magically disappear.

I agree with op, the skill is pretty much useless (unless you are trying to troll people) and needs a rework.

I suggest a change in functionality. Instead of teleporting enemies all over the place it should teleport them back to the center of the field. Consequently energy cost, damage and torment application might need to be adjusted as well.

Akuni is right, afaik it has always been that way.

Bhawb.7408:

Skoigoth.9238:

I didn´t say the numbers should stay the same I just don´t get why Thief e.g. has no ICD on Stuff like Signet of Malice and Invigorating Precision, but we have to deal with this crap.

That has an effective CD, it is how quickly the thief can deal damage, and it only scales up to at most 5 targets. With no ICD SoV will be balanced against targets like Necro with Locust Swarm, Dagger auto, wells, axe 2, etc. hitting for multiple times per second and would be worthless against other damage. Its much better with a 1s ICD (should be per person hitting you) where it can be balanced against normal damage amounts, as DPS tends to be consistent while hits per second isn’t.

B-b-but… pretty much every other class has access to some really broken stuff right now… why can´t we have some broken stuff as well?? :´(

Edit: To clarify this, from a PvE perspective, what I want is SoV´s passive to heal us/siphon for a small amount with no ICD when we hit stuff and the active to either have its duration increased or its ICD removed. Numbers would need to be lowered of course, but I´m pretty positive that the skill can still be balanced that way without being super op, ruling out CC and the other heals completely, in sPvP.

striker.3704:

That ICD is necessary for SOV imo because it would otherwise be too strong.

I didn´t say the numbers should stay the same I just don´t get why Thief e.g. has no ICD on Stuff like Signet of Malice and Invigorating Precision, but we have to deal with this crap.

For PvE I use SoV (as I did pre-patch), but more as an additional damage skill than a heal skill. The passive heal is still terribad. It really should be changed to “on hit” rather then “when getting struck by a foe”. The ICDs on both passive and especially on the active effect still somewhat cripple the skill. You´ll pretty much never be able to reach Vampiric Mark`s full potential. I think either the duration of Vampiric Mark should be increased to maybe 10-12s, or the ICD on it should be removed altogether.

As for sPvP, I´m still not sure how good WoB actually is in builds with Vampiric Rituals, but as it stands I´ll probably stick to CC regardless of which build I´m using and despite the very annoying CD nerf.

Overall I´m not very happy with our heal skill situation. Having to choose between “at least it does damage”, “meh”, “bad” and “terribad” is not a fun choice.

Imo what they should´ve done instead of nerfing our only good heal, leaving us with a bunch of substandard/mediocre heals, is buffing WoB, SoV and BF a bit more, giving them more utility/situational usage (like the Thief heal skills e.g.) so that they can somewhat compete with CC.

Our Father, Who art within the mists
Hallowed be Thy Ground;
Thy speedrun come,
Thy lfg-requirements shall be met,
in dungeons as it is in fractals.
Give us this day our daily rewards,
and forgive us our casualness,
as we forgive those who slack in our dungeon runs;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the Staff Guardians. Amen.

Happy bingo day everyone!

@Tim: I don´t even understand why you bring this up, but as a Warrior you can easily get up to 50-60% crit chance without having a single point of precision on your gear through Fury, Banner of Discipline, Signet of Fury and Truffle Steak/Steak and Asparagus Food, all of which are staples of most PvE Warrior builds.

Besides that, I am well aware that different stat sets are differently effective when used in conjunction with certain builds. I said it multiple times in my previous posts (passive defense at the cost of offensive capabilities and vice versa), I´m not disputing that.
What I´m saying is that they do not determine or dictate the way you play those builds. It really cannot be that hard to grasp that.

Maybe you and I just have rather different understandings of what “playstyle” means, idk.

Tim.6450:

Let’s say I remove forcefull greatsword and phalanx strength?What impact would that have on the way I play this build? Nearly zero impact. I will just have less might application (both personal and aoe) .

So you are claiming that removing Phalanx Strength from a Phalanx Strength build would have no impact on the intended playstyle of that build. Well… what can I say?

Stop trying to twist arguments of others into yours by compulsively turning them upside down. I can´t take you serious that way.

deSade.9437:

Ugh. What. Even worse than sum41, didn’t think it was possible.

Yeah, pop-punk is not really my cup of tea either, but I think it suits the theme of nerfing a skill to horse-kitten-level because properly balancing it is apparently to hard quite well :>

Tim.6450:

All nice and well but why has the defensive gear have to be around tanking and not maybe around active defense (toughness increases the duration of your defensive skills)?

Because GW2´s stat and combat systems are designed that way. I don´t know why the devs made these decisions. All I´m saying is that through stats they do give us the option to put emphasis on either increased passive defense or increased offensive capabilities and almost anything in between.

Tim.6450:

I’m not, I was talking about how you use certain skills/weapons based on your stats. Necromancer scepter has a completely different playstyle with zerker gear then rabid (in zerker i’m to hit with skill #3 when my foe has much conditions while in rabid I’m using it a lot less). I will also use (or intend to use) life blast differently in a 0/6/4/0/4 terror builds with rabid than with carrion.

What you describe here is exactly what I was trying to explain to you. The only thing stats do determine about your playstyle is which type of damage you deal. Direct damage vs. Condition Damage.
Necromancer scepter is always a mid-range condition based weapon and still is if you use Berserker´s gear. Life blast will always stay a mid- to close-range power based attack, even in condition builds using Dhuumfire. The difference between Rabid (condi stat set) and Carrion (hybrid stat set) in this context is marginal at best and not playstyle defining at all.
What defines your actual use of those skills is the overarching idea behind your build, your intended playstyle. Your stats only affect how effective it´ll be in the end and if you choose to put more emphasis on defense or offense.

Tim.6450:

Largely stays the same? So there is ome difference to you playstyle based on your gear? Also will your role as burst damage still apply if you used nomad?

First of all, let my clarify this. I´m in no way disputing that some stat combinations go better with certain types of playing the game. Apparently you didn´t read what I wrote very thoroughly. All I said is this:

Stats do not determine your playstyle. What determines your playstyle is your choice of weapons, traits, utility skills and to a lesser extent your choice of runes and sigils.

I´ll try to illustrate that once more. Lets take a different example, the current Phalanx Strength Warrior build. When I pick Nomad´s gear instead of Berserker´s, what impact would that have on the way I play this build? Nearly zero impact. I would still be using the same skills, in the same order and in the same situations as I would when wearing Berserker´s gear.

So what´s the trade-off then? What about my role in the party? Do I still bring my banners? Yes I do. Do I still bring Empowered Allies to the party? Yes I do. Do I still apply Vulnerability to increase overall party DPS? Yes but slightly worse. Do I still provide might for my party? Yes but worse. Can I still bring Fury, additional Vulnerability or CC to the party if needed? Yes I can.
So you basically trade a big chunk of your personal DPS and some of your offensive support capabilities for absolutely godlike survivability (trust me, a Warrior in full Nomad´s literally can´t die in PvE unless you are actively working towards it).
Sounds fair to me, but is it playstyle defining? Nope.

But what happens if you change some of the other aspects of the build? E.g. swap out Strenght Runes for something else, pick another melee weapon over Greatsword or pick Furious Reaction instead of Forceful Greatsword? The build would get significantly worse or falls apart completely and suddenly your PS Warrior isn´t a proper PS Warrior anymore.

Granted, things like removing the best GS trait from a GS driven build is an extreme example, but is it really THAT HARD to understand that it is not the stats but the combination of weapons, traits etc.etc. (aka the core of each and every build) what defines the way you play?

10/10 would listen again
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/38mnmf/i_made_a_song_about_the_upcoming_icebow_nerf/
https://soundcloud.com/zacksuckatlove/icebow-4-im-gonna-miss-you

Tim.6450:

Now do they want me take hits or not!? I mean all this active combat talk and yet they intoduce tanking gear.

They give you a choice based on how confident you are and how proficient you evaluate your own capabilities as a player.
You feel very confident and think you know the ins and outs of certain encounters? You can take offensive gear.
You don´t feel proficient enough to beat a certain encounter without additional passive defense? You can take defensive gear.

And anything in between of course.

Tim.6450:

And please don’t start me on this “Gear doesn’t determine playstyle” nonsense. Take a look at entangle in a power and condition build. Same as necromancer scepter, offhand sword warrior and life blast in 0/6/4/0/4 terror builds.

I think you are confusing gear (weapons, armor, trinkets, runes and sigils) with stats.

Stats or stat sets (i.e. Berserker´s, Sinister, Cleric´s etc.) do not determine your playstyle (the way one approaches certain aspects of the game) apart from maybe direct damage vs. conditions. Gear in a broader sense of the word only has an impact when it comes to weapon choices and to a lesser extent when it comes to runes and sigils.

Let me spell it out for you again: Stats do not determine anything about your playstyle apart from which type of damage you deal, they largely determine how much you will have to rely on active defenses in combat.

When I play a S/F Ele build for example, the way I play it (which skills do I use, when do I use them, in which order do I use them, etc.) stays pretty much unaffected by my choice of stats, I will always play it as a S/F Ele.
Lets say I pick Valkyrie´s or Cleric´s stats instead of Berserker´s. The skill sequences will largely stay the same, as will my role in a party: Providing might and fury, conjure weapons for hard CC and burst damage, as well as on-demand blast finishers (for stealth e.g.), a long lasting projectile block and some healing if necessary.

All of those things that make up the S/F Ele build are determined first and foremost by my choice of weapons, traits, utility skills and to a certain extent by my runes and sigils.
The stat set of my choice determines the type of damage I deal and how much emphasis I put on passive defense at the cost of lower offensive capabilities or vice versa.

Nike.2631:

And this is a perfect example of how developer and player perspectives differ. (Many)players WANT there to be a best choice so they can take it. Every time I’m in game and I hear some new player ask “what’s the best class?” I throw up in my mouth just a little… because if there is a right answer to that question the designer has done something HORIBLY WRONG. If that best answer remains best across a large range of activities it just gets more wrong.

So you don´t like min-maxing? Fine, don´t do it then. There are plenty of people out there who don´t care about being efficient either you can play with.
Besides that, the argument “if there is only one correct answer to all problems something is wrong” doesn´t apply to GW2´s current state at all. For starters, dungeons/fractals only make up a very, very small portion of GW2´s content. That´s pretty much the only place where “the zerker meta” even exists and regardless of that you can still complete all dungeons and fractals while using any kind of gear you want just fine.

Nike.2631:

Please, get over it already and let the devs do their job.

This may come as a shock to you, but creating a system where there are multiple similarly desirable solutions IS THE JOB. The game delivers on this principle well in some places and much, much less so in others.

Why should I be shocked? What do you even mean? You think a certain aspect of GW2´s core game design is flawed and the devs need to address it. I don´t.

Nike.2631:

Maybe if Giver’s armor/jewelry had the boon duration stat the points OBVIOUSLY should be generating (1% per ten stat points as seen in several trait lines) instead of being castrated at 1% per piece, maybe the “zerker meta” would actually resolve itself…

And then what? Full Giver´s meta? 3x Giver´s 2x Berserker´s group comps? Yeah, that´ll be more fun for everybody for sure…

Why don´t you people understand that bluntly making different gear prefixes “better” or “more viable” wont change anything?
There will always be most optimal strategies, team comps, builds and associated stat sets and the “meta” (a term being grossly misused in this context by some people here) will always settle around this optimum eventually.

Please, get over it already and let the devs do their job.

@Dragon Ruler X

Could you please explain to me why you feel this urgent need to “fix the zerker meta” in a concise and comprehensive manner?
Even after dozens of threads similar to this one, I still fail to see any valid reason justifying the bulk of the proposals presented here to “fix the meta”. Whatever that means…

Subutex.2416:

I keep seeing these “zerg” dungeon parties. Not sure if Zerg builds are the most appropriate for PvE.

Just 6pool them every time and make sure to pull your drones as well, works perfectly fine.
gg no re

I thought they settled for Colinmancer

http://i.imgur.com/xVjdLe7.jpg