Transversal QQ Meta thread

[aelska.4609]

Many threads have been opened to QQ about one or the other build in the meta. But often these lead to useless debates "Your class is op" "-NO IT IS YOUR CLASS" "-WHAT ABOUT NERF THIEF??!"

 

So I suggest this thread to denounce all the things that are unfun with the current metabuilds, which are available from here [https://godsofpvp.net](https://www.godsofpvp.net).

 

State your build, and for each of the "metabuilds", list what you find unfun in fighting them. Do not try to give suggestions to fix that, as this is the Devs job.

 

Let me begin:

 

I play core guard, hammer zerk or cancer burn depending on ennemy comp. So technically not in meta, although I find these builds to be decent "metabuilds-killer".

 

**Support tempest**

Overall quite ok to deal with my build (they are quite squishy if targetted), except:

* Glyph of renewal is frustrating and nearly invisible.

* It's still a CC machine, aegis won't protect you from their CC as most of them are unblockable

* Stone heart variant is quite power annihilating

 

**Grenades Holosmith**

Cancerous to fight against, it feels you get hit and blind from nowhere:

* Long range grenades with fast cast time and no AoE indicator and great dps

* Flashbang + explosive entrance are insanely effective

Meanwhile I do not find sword/holothingie excessives, as they are both telegraphed and predictable.

 

**Symbolbrand**

As long as they dont have rez signet, I am quite fine with them. Survive the first 10 seconds when they will spam all their symbols and their pulls then proceed to two bursts and they are quite down. But:

* They do have quite a lot of powerful (AoE) CC

* Symbols are terrible design overall, giving "must dodge AoE" build to players on a node oriented pvp gamemode cannot be healthy.

 

**Condition mirage**

Not really in the meta atm and I won't complain. It just feels like fighting an army of clones over and over again until the mirage is too low in health and decides to disengage.

 

**Core Necromancer**

* Corrupts are too frequent, at that point popping a stability "at the right moment" does not feel so worth it

* Fear that deals insane amount of damage is not such a great design imo. Usually when you get CCed you have the choice to breakstun of it or not depending on the situation. When the CC starts to be life-threatening by itself, you don't have the choice: get rid of it the fastest possible.

* I really don't like getting annihilated by a lich form auto attack. 1200 range auto-attack dealing 696 damage with a 2.34 power coefficient that pierces, while you get stability ? Sounds pretty cheese to me.

 

**Power Reaper**

I actually find them nicer to fight against than their core counterpart. Although not everything is perfect:

* Ghastly claws (axe #2) is awful to fight against. It deals insane amount of damage "out of nowhere" (impossible to determine where is the necro from the animation). I think I would be way more ok with that skill if the animation was linking the target to the caster with a little beam or something.

* Quickness on reaper shroud gives me a feeling of "old powercreep civilization" with agility sigil and HoT release flashbacks .

 

**Ranger Core / Bunker soulbeast**

Dunno about these, from my perspective I would simply rename these as "root generator". Besides that:

* Counterattack kick (greatsword #3 activation) evade feels clunky and the animation do not fit it. That's 3s of block + 3/4s of evade, it slows down the game too much.

 

**Condi Herald / Power Herald**

Their sustain options are out of the chart, I recently made a post about these [in this topic](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/108192/condi-rev-is-so-op#latest). Targetting them just feel like a waste of time, it is like hitting a turtle inside its shell.

 

**Condi thief**

The amount of condis it can supply "out of nowhere" is ridiculous, but surviving the entrance burst gives you great guarantees on the outcome of the fight. I think it's "cheesability" comes from two game design:

* The way cleanses might cleanse less "life threatening condis" than those 6 stacks of confusion and 15 stacks of poison, forcing you to use a second one for no reason

* The way reveals work: you get it _after_ hitting the target and not _while casting your burst_ . So it is almost too late for the target to react.

* The time it needs to render a character revealed. I dont know if it is my computer that is potato or gw2 servers, but needing half of a second before seeing a revealed character and the other incoming strikes is not great.

 

**Daredevil D/P**

Definitely feels like less cheese than its condi counterpart, I think it suffers from the same "reveal" design flaws. Blocking a backstab ? Just not worth it.

 

**Strength spellbreaker**

Not really in the meta, so do not see my comment as a "NERF EVEN MORE" comment. I find this class interesting to fight against as it requires you to use your breakstun properly and trick them to be able to burst them in the little windows of opportunities. However:

* Unblockable damage on dodge is insanely stupid design.

* Full counter really feels like ranger GS counterattack: clunky aftercast evade and damage negation, unblockable effects, which slows down the game terribly. Instead of pushing it in the "0 damage but nice sustain side" I would have put it the other way round, leading it more in a "dark souls parry" way.

* Arcing slice feels like a "dodge or die" skill, but with little time to dodge it.