Guild Wars 2

Spoken like someone who only plays ranged. The meta hss definitely shifted towards ranged.

It’s because stability changes shifted the meta strongly in favour of ranged.

The other potential fix is to nerf wells or make all AOE dmg trigger retal.

Gibson.4036:

Xillllix.3485:

It looks like it’s missing about 75% of the utility skills, 2 weapons, 2 legends, and the damage was nerfed by 50% not to unbalance the rest of the game during the beta test.

I would not base my impression of the class from that, specially not when mesmers are running around 1-shotting everyone and the condi damage is off the chart.

Which makes the “it’s a true beta test” argument fall apart. If it’s too incomplete to even form an opinion, why beta test? There has to be enough substance to form real feedback.

Because you’re there to QA the expansion so anet doesn’t have to pay as many testers of course. It’s not intended to be fun.

The real question is: why prepurchase?

Jayden Ennok.3687:

Lighting rod is awesome with staff, with S/D it doesn’t add that much and you lose a lot by not using fresh air. Yes it hits hard (lol try to fear someone when using a ram :P ) but it’s also easy to miss hits on those skills, while you lose all the dmg you’d have with fresh air.

Even on staff it’s pretty bad. Approx 1-2K proc on only 3 skills with 30-40sec CDs, none of which are guaranteed to land. especially in WVW.

The man reason to use it is burst, but even then fresh air is probably better.

oZii.2864:

scerevisiae.1972:

oZii.2864:

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

What is all this non-sense about Arcana being mandatory? Water is, true, but not arcana. Come one ppl, stop being so conservative.

I don’t know why people are so scared to play without arcana or even water to try it out it doesn’t cost them anything.

Earth can completely replace Arcana as long as you run water and a energy sigil. Air/Earth/Water with zephyr’s boon will give you enough fury uptime, soothing disruption+energy sigil enough regen+endurance, and earth will give you a ton protection with protection on aura’s+soothing ice. Not to mention if you take Rock solid you can run Ether Renewal much more reliably than any other non-earth build. Oh and I don’t have to mention stone heart.

I would certainly run a fire/water/earth build if I wanted to put on traveler runes instead of hoelbrak which i think is certainly viable.

I find it strange that people won’t experiment more.

I experimented, it’s just not as good.

one of the key elements is prot on earth attune due to EAtt is usable anytime, whereas prot on aura requires a stunbreak, or an aura-generator. this is a massive difference.

evasive arcana by itself is better every other GM.

at the end of the day, you get more from arcane than any other trait line except water.

Hmm Evasive is a great trait I agree there, but I feel that the potential 12-15s of protection from Air/Water/Earth completely overshadows the protection that Air/Water/Arcana gives you. Then you only have 1 or 2 seconds downtime before you could potentially bring it back up. Also prot on aura doesn’t require a stun break since attunement swapping and aura’s are instant cast so if you are stunned swap to air and activate shocking aura.

When earth is on CD you can’t get prot in arcana with Air/Water/Earth you can get it in any attunement with soothing ice, any attunement with tempest defense, and Fire if you get a magnetic leap through fire field. Then of course air 3 and water 4 on command if they aren’t on cd. That is strictly looking at protection in Air/Water/Earth vs Air/Water/Arcana no to mention the -10% damage against melee from the earth minor that applies no matter your attunement.

In that case why Air at all, when you could go earth/water/arcana and get EAtt’s prot and evasive as well, which you can use to blast ice field for another frost aura, plus vigour on crit…

you don’t lose much from air, but gain a lot from arcana.

the other thing i’d argue is that it’s more useful to have high vigour uptime than be able to stack 10+ seconds of prot (which you can nearly get from slotting armour of earth anyway).

ultimately it’s all personal preference. i still find arcana the best Ele line, followed by water, and the synergy between these 2 lines is too great to pass up.

Well, you paid for the right to QA their game so they don’t have to, so…

shatterstone just needs to be an ice field and/or apply chill when it explodes. long explosion time + crap damage just makes it a waste of a skill slot.

Anet have had 3 years of a constant stream of player complaints about sceptre/focus skills, glyphs, conjures, signets, arcane/water dependence and they’ve not done anything worth a kitten .

at this point the only message worth sending is not spending a cent in the cash shop, and not buying the expansion.

More like, he’s only fighting incompetent players who don’t dodge the very obvious & telegraphed slow signet cast…

Lettuce.2945:

scerevisiae.1972:

Am having no trouble killing D/F… as long as you have a ranged weapon, they’re very easy to kite, as long as you dodge their key skills (BS, the knockdown).

hard to see D/F ever being a thing.

Can’t tell if serious.

totes srs. but then i play Ele a lot so i guess it’s easier for me to beat them.

D/F is a lower damage, lower healing, lower mobility version of D/D. the only area where D/F is better than D/D is vs pure condi classes, but now that diamond skin is “free”, even that advantage is moot.

oZii.2864:

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

What is all this non-sense about Arcana being mandatory? Water is, true, but not arcana. Come one ppl, stop being so conservative.

I don’t know why people are so scared to play without arcana or even water to try it out it doesn’t cost them anything.

Earth can completely replace Arcana as long as you run water and a energy sigil. Air/Earth/Water with zephyr’s boon will give you enough fury uptime, soothing disruption+energy sigil enough regen+endurance, and earth will give you a ton protection with protection on aura’s+soothing ice. Not to mention if you take Rock solid you can run Ether Renewal much more reliably than any other non-earth build. Oh and I don’t have to mention stone heart.

I would certainly run a fire/water/earth build if I wanted to put on traveler runes instead of hoelbrak which i think is certainly viable.

I find it strange that people won’t experiment more.

I experimented, it’s just not as good.

one of the key elements is prot on earth attune due to EAtt is usable anytime, whereas prot on aura requires a stunbreak, or an aura-generator. this is a massive difference.

evasive arcana by itself is better every other GM.

at the end of the day, you get more from arcane than any other trait line except water.

signet thief also decent.

it’s already one of focus’ few good skills, better to make the weak skills worthwhile.

Fuzzion.2504:

If you are complaining about signets while running a signet build with condi, u r doing something wrong.

yeah that’s why there are so many signet builds around… not.

there is no doubt signets were nerfed by this patch (vis a vis loss of fire aura), and no doubt that they were weak before the patch.

Nate.3927:

scerevisiae.1972:

I still think it’s appalling/shady behaviour not to include a character slot FOR ALL in an expansion that adds a new class, akin to me buying a second car and the retailer not providing a steering wheel because my first car came with one.

DODGY ANET, DODGY.

game came with 8 professions and only 5 character slots, one for each race. Your example also doesn’t match. A better example would be you got your existing car new engines, a new paint job and new aircon, then complain that the mechanic didn’t add in an extra seat so you can fit in an extra person in your car.

Your example doesn’t match either. If I buy the expac after its released (and others have reviewed it & found it worth the money), I cannot create a revenant, a mjor piece of the expac, because I am expected to use a character slot I’ve already paid for. ie: I would need to delete one of my chars or pay the extra hidden cost.

In your version of the analogy this is like the mechanic fitting that new engine, and then having to pay extra for it to work.

Cherokeewill.7504:

New player pre-purchase = HoT access and core game and 5 character slots (6 with Deluxe and Ultimate)

Vet player pre-purchase = HoT access and 1 additional character slot (2 with Deluxe and Ultimate)

Vet player = Hot access only

Fixed that for you.

All 3 pay the same amount. How is that even remotely fair again?

I think the whole problem stems from the short-duration model of repeatable stealth used in this game. It forces theives to be super fragile (because they’re expected to be able to restealth often as a form of defense).

I much prefer the longer-duration, very limited re-stealth version of stealth used for thieves in other games. Much more fun to play, allows a wider range of thief roles, and allows designers to make the class archetype more robust.

i like the fact they are a different shape than ranger’s traps but it sucks they’re effectively single target. they ought to have a duration and pulse like ranger traps.

I still think it’s appalling/shady behaviour not to include a character slot FOR ALL in an expansion that adds a new class, akin to me buying a second car and the retailer not providing a steering wheel because my first car came with one.

DODGY ANET, DODGY.

Monk Tank.5897:

Oh so its going to be like the last beta? I thought after paying for the expansion we would be able to keep our characters this time?

Nope. You’re paying for the right to QA their product so that they don’t have to, and at the end of each iteration, your work is wiped.

yep, makes no sense at all, but yet is totally in keeping with Anet’s half- kitten d attempts at balancing.

signet builds were never really alive. the signets themselves are just too weak, the fire aura trigger was the only thing that made them remotely interesting.

Anet apparently really want everyone to only run water/arcane/cantrips.

oZii.2864:

earth line
[…]
I ran around again last night with no arcana with a fire/air/water and the only thing I missed was movement speed from Air, but the damage was so good.

prot on aura existed before the patch, and hasn’t really changed all that much.

arcane offer so much more than earth

• attunement CD reduction (still matters for any D/?)
• arcane has more prot on demand, and more prot uptime
• arcane is the only line that provides vigour from 2 sources
• another deal-breaker: on-demand arcane group heal + 2x group condi cleanse + group regen

no other line comes close.

i’m as bored as anyone about having to keep speccing water/arcane for the foreseeable future but with trait lines as they are there’s no way i’d run anything else if i were serious about winning.

oZii.2864:

The vigor is probably the best thing you get from arcana. EA has that one extra heal/condi removal but I don’t think it’s mandatory anymore.

No line offers more to Ele defence and sustain than Arcana. With Ele contingency thrown in, IMO it’s more mandatory than it’s ever been (for sustain). What line offers more?

I think it was a mistake not to have made Ele Attunement baseline and re-balance around that.

Am having no trouble killing D/F… as long as you have a ranged weapon, they’re very easy to kite, as long as you dodge their key skills (BS, the knockdown).

hard to see D/F ever being a thing.

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

In WvW I can now run a great damage build with Fire/Air/Arcane (can even switch Arcane for Earth or Water) or go with a more melee bunker spec so I don’t think you’ve explored Eles enough (as far as WvW potential goes). Yeah Armor of Earth/Mist Form might seem mandatory but they’re there to give you some baseline protection if things go south. Your damage surely comes from the weapon skills.

You assume too much. I tried no arcane/water, it’s only slightly less damage than no arcane/water, but it’s way less survivable.

Glyphs have now a better synergy with condi builds then they did before which make condi Eles much better (Yes they don’t have to rely on Cantrips sicne they benefit more from Glyphs or Arcane skills).

You lost all credibility with me right there. Burning is pointless in WVW for anything bigger than 5v5. Ele has access to too few condis to sustain reasonable damage in WVW 5+, group condi clears are too numerous and too effective.

Glyphs (and signets and conjures) are as crap as they have ever been.

So I have to reiterate: 2/5 (40%) of our traits are effectively mandatory, and 3/5 (60%) of our utilities are effectively useless. I don’t see how anyone could say Ele is in a good place.

i don’t think anything has changed – if you want to build optimally for WVW or PVP, you’re still stuck with water+arcane+cantrips. 3rd trait line feels fairly optional, so i guess that’s something.

IMO Ele balancing will continue to suck until they stop making the water + arcane lines not mandatory. The best way to do this is make Ele Attunement baseline, and either make other utilities offer equivalent survivability to cantrips, and/or move the cantrip traits out of water.

I note also that glyphs and conjures continue to suck as much as they always have.

So in summary, nearly half our traits are mandatory and half our utilities suck, so no, Ele may be in an OK place when using the cele/water/arcane build but Ele balance is overall still just as bad as it was 3 years ago.

Well from a wvw perspective, scepter sucks major kitten . The main problem being that AOE dmg is hard to land.

I’d like to see DT with either a faster drop time, or preferably being ground targeted. Shatterstone is a good candidate for a 1sec chill.

All the auto-attacks are really crap as well. would be nice to see the earth auto pierce.

After testing i don’t even think condi is even viable in WvW, so if anything, I’d be suggesting buffs.

minbariguy.7504:

Mortifer.2946:

Not anymore, read news. Every veteran will get +1 character slot, on the top of the one slot that is already offered for deluxe and ultimate versions.

Not every veteran. Only the ones who pre-purchase the game. No thanks.

On another note, I really love how so many people in this thread (not directed at you, Mortifer) keep going on about how “entitled” we are for thinking the expansion should simply come with the flipping character slot without strings attached. If anyone in this situation is acting entitled, it is most certainly ANet, who seems to think they are entitled to my money before they even announce a release date, let alone provide the product they want me to pay them for.

Honestly, they have done their level best to try to pressure people to buy a character slot. They originally had no intention of including one at all in the basic version of HoT, and were only dragged kicking and screaming to the point we find ourselves at now, where they grudgingly agree to provide one IF, and ONLY IF, we give them our money before they provide the product.

I get that they are a business. I get that they need money to keep that business running. But they could have— in fact, should have — chosen to earn that money by providing us with the opportunity to purchase things from the gem store that we would enjoy. Instead they have chosen to release a product with less than we will need in the hope that we will pay them even more money to get full use of this product. This just creates a feeling of resentment on my part. It feels like a greedy rip-off.

Yes, they need cash, but it’s not like Collin is out in the company parking lot collecting empty pop cans for the deposit money so they can pay their electric bill. They aren’t desperate, even though this move kind of makes it look like they are.

Best post in the thread IMO.

Orochimaru.4730:

With WvW being ignored for so long why should I pay $50 for a game which will not update the part of the game I like?

One new map after 3 years is not worth $50! They have to give a lot more to get my money now.

The WVW isn’t part of the expac anyway.

I too won’t be supporting this dodgy company with any more $$ either until I see a character slot included as standard for all purchasers, pre- and post-release.

You know, because asking for a product to be playable by itself without hidden extra charges is asking a lot….

exactly. If an expansion adds a class, it should include a character slot as standard, without qualifications. without the slot, the expansion is not playable by itself, which is basically the measure of a reputable company.

Companies that make products that have hidden extra charges, like Anet, are dodgy, and shouldn’t be supported. Simple as that.

The dodginess factor of Anet is increased by selling a product at full price without a release date, and without full discosure of contents, and selling the core game prior to the expansion saying it was required and then including it for free and editing the FAQ.

If a company did any of these things “in the real world”, they would be labelled dodgy, and potentially up for fines, at least in the jurisdiction in which I live.

I only play GW2 for WVW and PVP so $60 for 1 class and a new trait line and a few new skills per class isn’t good value at all to me. I know a lot of people feel the same.

Vayne.8563:

scerevisiae.1972:

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s also been said they won’t have access to future living stories either.

Noone has said this. just like every game there ill be a significant proportion of people who don’t buy the expansion, and locking these people out of the new story would also preclude these people from buying from the store, so not something they are likely to do.

Not that I’d be bothered either way, LS has been crap.

Actually this has been said. The story of the Living Story continues in the new zone in HoT. If you don’t have HoT you can NOT continue the story.

How could you? It’s all in the new zones. Even in the beta, you can see the story starting there. So how could you continue it, if you can’t get there to start it?

Have a link to where that’s written or said? All the stuff I’ve read/watched thus far has not said anything about HOT-exclusive anything, except for revenant, the extra traitline + a handful of skills, and of course the HOT-specific zones.

Vix.6730:

ItZMeJRS.9483:

So what will happen to people who don’t buy the expansion pack?

Anet will consider player feedback more seriously.

This x 1000. By buying the expansion you’re basically endorsing Anet’s shady and contemptuous attitude to its customers.

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s also been said they won’t have access to future living stories either.

Noone has said this. just like every game there ill be a significant proportion of people who don’t buy the expansion, and locking these people out of the new story would also preclude these people from buying from the store, so not something they are likely to do.

Not that I’d be bothered either way, LS has been crap.

Glenstorm.4059:

16) Lightning Flash no longer works in some places where it previously used to work; for example, some stairs in WvW.

this one is particularly annoying. I’m finding it’s not working in loads of places it used to, mainly up inclines.

maddoctor.2738:

scerevisiae.1972:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Don’t forget that your $50 buys you not only HoT release content, but all subsequent content (future updates) released for the expansion, as well.

Future content updates can’t be HOT-exclusive or they’d be betraying all the owners of the core game. ie: you won’t need the expac for all future content.

Not to mention IMO living story content isn’t worth paying for.

Future content updates WILL be HOT-exclusive because they will take place in HoT areas.

Nothing they’ve said so far indicates that future content will be HOT-exclusive.

I highly highly doubt it will be, as not all players will buy the expac, and making future LS content HOT-only would efffectively kill off those players, which would just be a stupid thing to do, business-wise.

Not that it’d bother me anyway, I think the living story content has been an abject failure in terms of entertainment value, and the resource-draining effects it’s had on the rest of the game.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Don’t forget that your $50 buys you not only HoT release content, but all subsequent content (future updates) released for the expansion, as well.

Future content updates can’t be HOT-exclusive or they’d be betraying all the owners of the core game. ie: you won’t need the expac for all future content.

Not to mention IMO living story content isn’t worth paying for.

Feirlista Xv.1425:

Looking at what is in the expansion so far the price is well worth it. Just the guild hall stuff alone is worth the $50 the guild halls are amazing all the other stuff is just gravy

You don’t need to expac to enter guild halls.

Not to mention they were originally going to be part of the core game.

Test.8734:

Lucky.4263:

What makes HoT worth $50?

Nothing.

Keep in mind ArenaNet has seeing declining profits, and that they invested a lot in the China release, which was a failure. They’re now releasing an overpriced expansion in order to make up for the money they have lost, but this is clearly a move to help them, not for the benefit of their players.

This.

I’d argue the base game has been a failure for me personally as well – in 3 years i’ve seen close to zero updates in WVW, which is the only part of the game IMO worth playing. All the Living Story content has been absolute crap as far as i’m concerned.

Class updates & changes have been glacially slow and ineffective – case in point, my Ele has had the same core spec for 3 years due to the barest minimum of effort devoted to balancing.

I’ve been willing to tolerate this insofar as I realise many other players find LS content worthwhile but this recent departure of Anet into outright deception and blatantly ripping us off to the tune of $50 for a lightweight expansion where we’re expect to pay another $10 just to play the new class has gone over the top.

Anet has joined the shadiest of shady companies with their recent cheap tactics, price gouging of existing players to fund new players, and seemingly deliberate double-charging for the core game.

Ayrilana.1396:

ODB.6891:

scerevisiae.1972:

Those initial 8 classes and 5 character slots came with the original game. I already paid for those. The expac comes with a single, new class, which is not possible to play for most existing players without deleting one of their existing characters.

Once again, this is like buying a new car and the salesman not giving you any wheels on the second car because your first car already came with wheels.

This ^ for all the white knights to read and more importantly, comprehend! It can’t be stated any more clearly or logically than this. HoT is a separate purchase from the original GW2 game, which we did already pay for. Those 8 classes and 5 character slots were bought and paid for a long time ago…they have absolutely nothing to do with this current purchase. Stop trying to refer back to a previous purchase, to try to excuse what they are cheating us on, in this current expected purchase. For this price, this should be a functional product right out of the “box”. The car example fits perfectly. The product you buy should be fully functional, no matter who the buyer is. Whether you bought a previous product from them or not, you should still be able to fully utilize this new product without having to buy extra from them. It is exactly like expecting someone to buy a new car and not including enough wheels to drive it…just because they bought a previous car. ANET needs to make a choice, either this is an expansion (lower the price and omit the character slot) or this is a full product (include full product benefits).

You’re not being cheated. Players made the choice to use up the five character slots that came with the core game. They then had to purchase additional slots to play the remaining classes. There’s no reason that the expansion was required to come with an additional character slot because of a new class. This argument is kind of moot now that all veterans who pre-purchase the game get an additional character slot.

The car example fails for reasons that I had already stated. Examples of not getting the keys/tires for the car would apply to the core game and not the expansion. The car and the core game are the same with an expansion being an extension of that.

I could use a dozen other analogies to keep proving you wrong but it still wouldn’t change the core point, which is that, by itself, the whole of the expansion is not playable by itself without spending additional money, deleting an existing character and using a character slot i’ve already paid for, or paying for a non-existent product and doing Anet’s QA for them for free.

IMO this is shady business practise and shows Anet doesn’t think very highly of its customer base. It’s only that gamers tend to be young & naive in a business sense that they don’t realise they’re being blantantly ripped off; in the real world, a company that tried to sell products whose basic functionality required hidden extra costs would be subject to unfair trading claims in this jurisdiction in which i live.

Ayrilana.1396:

I’m not being cheated and the product does exist although it’s not complete. It’s no different than any pre-order.

lol you have been cheated – you’ve paid full price for a product that doesn’t even exist yet — it doesn’t even yet have a release date…

name another industry anywhere where you pay the full price upfront of a product/service based on minimal information and without a release date.

not to mention this is a very lightweight expansion with the highest price i’ve yet to see in gaming.

if you don’t think the expac is worth the $60, don’t pre-purchase/buy it.

the only way Anet will change their extortionist pricing/content offering is if people don’t buy it.

personally i’m still disgusted they think they can get away with not including a character slot in an expac that adds a new class in order to squeeze another $10 out of everyone.

$50? the expac is $60 unless you want to QA Anet’s buggy pre-releases for them and have all your progress deleted at the end.

$60 for only 1 new class, 8 elite specs and a couple of new PVE zones I don’t want to play anyway IMO is a blatant ripoff.

i don’t know how people can pre-order when there’s still so little info available.

Inexplicable.4165:

“Oh, I’m not buying the expansion. What can I do with my free time now? I’ll let everyone know.”

You realise the new PVP, WVW map, and guild halls aren’t in the expac, right?

The uproar is due to Anet wilfully try to first deceive players through the FAQ edit (which they claim was a mistake – it wasn’t), and then proceed to try to rip players off by not providing a character slot in an expac that adds a class. They’re still trying to rip us off, just some people are happy to be ripped off because they’re naive and don’t know any better.

This has been a calculated move to attempt to extort an extra $10 out of people on top of the (already overpriced) $50 expac cost, unless they’re willing to pre-pay and do Anet’s QA for them (and then have all their progress wiped anyway).

Ayrilana.1396:

scerevisiae.1972:

Kharlus.3612:

Where is written in stone that everybody is looking for extra slots?!

The expac comes with a new class. It’s one of the few things we actually know for sure that will actually be in the (rather under-contented & overpriced) expansion.

It seems perfectly reasonable to expect that everything needed to enjoy the content of the expansion actually comes with the expansion, right? In the same way when you buy a new car, you expect to be able to drive it.

Therefore, everyone who buys the expac, should get a character slot included, no further questions or qualifications required.

Your car scenario is not the same as here and does not apply. An expansion containing a new class does not mean that it must come with an expansion slot no more than a game is required to come with as many character slots as there are classes. You made the choice to use up your allotted character slots that came with the game.

There are character slots available for purchase. You may also take advantage of the pre-purchase bonus or purchase either of the two packages beyond standard to get this additional character slot. If you choose to not take up any of those options then that is your own choice.

Those initial 8 classes and 5 character slots came with the original game. I already paid for those. The expac comes with a single, new class, which is not possible to play for most existing players without deleting one of their existing characters.

Once again, this is like buying a new car and the salesman not giving you any wheels on the second car because your first car already came with wheels.

Kharlus.3612:

Where is written in stone that everybody is looking for extra slots?!

The expac comes with a new class. It’s one of the few things we actually know for sure that will actually be in the (rather under-contented & overpriced) expansion.

It seems perfectly reasonable to expect that everything needed to enjoy the content of the expansion actually comes with the expansion, right? In the same way when you buy a new car, you expect to be able to drive it.

Therefore, everyone who buys the expac, should get a character slot included, no further questions or qualifications required.

Squeesidhe.4761:

$50 is WAY overpriced for the features I’ve seen listed so far. And the special editions ($99??) are just insulting.

I feel like I’ve stuck with you through a lot of fumbling, sloppiness and amateur-hour design decisions, and my reward it to get nickle-and-dimed on the first major new content release?

The pre-order bonus is a title and the opportunity to help you beta test? Wow, generous!

You know, there’s a LOT of competition out there these days. Just sayin’.

This. The problem is all these new players who’ll blindly pay anything without any concrete expac details at all, and then are the first ones to cry about lack of content a month after expac release.

The only thing pre-ordering does is guarantee you get less for your money, because by purchasing, you’re telling Anet that you’re happy to get almost nothing (which is what’s been actually announced and shown) for $50+.

You’re also telling Anet you’re happy to pay them to QA unfinished/buggy content for them.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Anet is terrible at balancing. That’s why they’ve been removing more and more build choices from the game: the fewer builds there are, the easier to balance. It doesn’t look like we’re even near their balancing capabilities, so expect removal of more choice in the future.

Agree, the balance in this game is still really bad. After 3 years there are still way too many crappy weapon skills, utilities and traits for anyone who really knows the game well to honestly say otherwise.

The build diversity in this game after 3 years is still terrible, for eg: Elementalist has basically been stuck in a single build with minimal variation for the whole of the 3 years.

In sPVP and WVW, the game basically lurches from one static meta to another static meta, there is no build/meta evolution except through patches. PVE has had the same static meta since day 1, and continues to do so.