How about we get the pre February Meta back and call it a day?

[snoow.1694]

Personally I feel like this post February patch meta and the absolute negligence of **frequent** balance patches once issues arised has enabled the most degenerate playstyles and killed build variety. Never would have thought to say it, but the pre February patch meta was alot more fun and if possible I would choose to go back to the exact same build.

What are your opinions? Which meta do you prefer - this meta right now or the one before the big changes?

[Jekkt.6045]

how about we get vanilla meta back and call it a good game again?

[Dantheman.3589]

I misclicked my vote- the February patch literally destroyed the mechanics of every single class in the game. Our classes are now replaced with boring versions of themselves, also I didn’t want the more frequent patches- so I’m glad they didn’t stick to that since more changes will just destroy the game even more

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

Yes, do it, pre-february meta. Especially from 2012-2014 before condi cap removal.

[Gwaihir.1745]

The failure of anet to produce iterative balance patches after they promised to killed the vision they had in the path. Now we are left with useless skill and traits because of some stupid dogma they didn't back up.

 

It could have worked but they didn't follow up. They promised more frequent balance and instead we got NO balance whatsoever, even less than before.

 

Anet has basically fired everyone at this point who actually read the forums so we're talking to a brick wall.

[Shao.7236]

Killed build variety as in? I can play whatever I want now given it makes sense and isn't random. Claim has no foundation to hold on.

 

I couldn't do that before and it's easy to prove by looking back at what dominated back then. (Tetherbreaker evade spam at 4k unblockable damage per dodge.)

 

You can't make this up.

[Ovark.2514]

Meta now is cancer but the feb balance was in the right direction. We now must wait a year for anet to complete the job. . .

[Stand The Wall.6987]

mega patch was good first step but no follow up now salty so i vote against my own interest

[Kuma.1503]

All I wanted from the Feb Patch was a vitality increase or a -20% damage taken modifier in PvP only. Something to make fights less explosive.

 

I like the current time to kill, but I dislike the mechanical changes we've seen. In the pursuit of nerfing outliers, we're steadily making every class clunkier, simpler and less fun to play.

 

 

[Multicolorhipster.9751]

Reckon they should keep a handful of changes. Some of the tradeoffs were nice, and some skills/traits had too many effects packed into 1.

 

Everything else; the damage coefficient and condi application nerfs, 300S CD passives, removal of amulets/sigils, and the no damage on CC, that's all boring. Shrunk the meta down and turned 1v1s and teamfights into snail-paced battles of attrition that really boil down to whoever has the weaker attention span and eventually just gives up.

 

What would have been better would be applying tradeoffs to all the elite specs, and looking into minor adjustments to the most extreme cases we had pre-Feb 25th.

 

Also, the Feb 25th patch in reverse probably would have been much cooler. Rather than removing and nerfing everything if it focused on buffing underplayed skills/trait-lines on the same scale then it would have opened up a ton of new ways to play without subtracting anything from what was already there.

[Bailios.7518]

I like this meta more, I just wish they'd do something about explosive entrance and zoo necros and bring back support fb pls.

[snoow.1694]

> @"Shao.7236" said:

> Killed build variety as in? I can play whatever I want now given it makes sense and isn't random. Claim has no foundation to hold on.

>

> I couldn't do that before and it's easy to prove by looking back at what dominated back then. (Tetherbreaker evade spam at 4k unblockable damage per dodge.)

>

> You can't make this up.

 

Killed build variety since

 

1) literal Warriors are forced to play a support role, because their damage is garbage

2) Guardians are forced to play AoE burn, because power damage (symbols + single target) got taken away and Firebrand got gutted as support

3) Rangers play Decap kitten Druid, because their single target damage output isn´t much desired in team fights or they are forced to Berserk variants, which are good for exact 30 seconds into a teamfight

4) Thieves stopped the playing builds like Pistolwhip or S/D and went Shadow Arts D/P only since February

5) Scrappers/Holos abuse the Grenade Kit and Supply Crate as an AoE tool to the fullest

6) we got a literal Renegade infestation going on right now

 

"You can play whatever you want" - LMAO tell that to the Healbreakers in Plat 2, who are full bunkering points and who would eat shit in the chat if they played something offensive - you can't make this up

[Widmo.3186]

> @"snoow.1694" said:

> > @"Shao.7236" said:

> > Killed build variety as in? I can play whatever I want now given it makes sense and isn't random. Claim has no foundation to hold on.

> >

> > I couldn't do that before and it's easy to prove by looking back at what dominated back then. (Tetherbreaker evade spam at 4k unblockable damage per dodge.)

> >

> > You can't make this up.

>

> Killed build variety since

>

> 1) literal Warriors are forced to play a support role, because their damage is garbage

> 2) Guardians are forced to play AoE burn, because power damage (symbols + single target) got taken away and Firebrand got gutted as support

> 3) Rangers play Decap kitten Druid, because their single target damage output isn´t much desired in team fights or they are forced to Berserk variants, which are good for exact 30 seconds into a teamfight

> 4) Thieves stopped the playing builds like Pistolwhip or S/D and went Shadow Arts D/P only since February

> 5) Scrappers/Holos abuse the Grenade Kit and Supply Crate as an AoE tool to the fullest

> 6) we got a literal Renegade infestation going on right now

>

> "You can play whatever you want" - LMAO tell that to the Healbreakers in Plat 2, who are full bunkering points and who would eat kitten in the chat if they played something offensive - you can't make this up

 

Tbh I get what he means by 'build diversity, i can play w/e i want'. Since dmg nerf you can play any spec you want and be anyhow viable. Maybe you wont do much (or to be more precise anything) but at least you wont die in a second. I guess thats the whiteknights definition of diversity.

 

Id add to that list struggling mezmers with whatever they still can play. Eles got after so long time a viable Weaver spec but ofc some kiddo popularized condi version for nohands so ANet in order to nerf it, pretty much deleted whole sword spec, (meanwhile also FA) and gutted LR - similar story to warrior, welcome to the support club. Aaand ofc holy necro grail, which has both power and condi versions, core and reaper working, scourge abit backsitting.

So yeah, current meta is not about looking for whats good, its about looking for what was omitted, wasnt nerfed to the ground and can be abused to infinity and even beyond (eg. renegade, grenades, SA traitline, decap druid, support warrior and tempest, core necro with Lich Form).

[sitarskee.5738]

Not gonna lie, I liked it better year ago.

[Falan.1839]

Both options are kind of bad honestly, the pre-Feb meta might have been more explosive and mechanically challenging, but it was extremely narrow. Holo had been forced out of it with the stability nerf and Scourge was kind of gone aswell. So it was basically just a bunch of Power Revs and DP thieves stealth- and/or portengaging people for oneshots and a quick snowball. The meta right now actually has a wider variety of viable classes and specs. The major issue with the February changes is that the nerf in sustain that should have followed the dps nerfs never really came for many builds. The TTK on the overall hp pools and even immunity frames isn't to high in most cases. There is just too many builds still shitting out sustain left and right without even using their healskill and that is what makes the meta dull in many cases.

[Grimjack.8130]

Pre Feb wasn't perfect, but some combination of the Pre Feb patch and the slightly different meta we had before then would've been perfect.

 

Weaver beat Mes, Mes Beat War, War beat Weaver, and Holo against all of them were skill matchups. None of these matchups were 100-0. All of these matchups were at least 60-40, one of the healthiest sidenode metas I've ever seen.

Firebrand and Scourge made the typical teamfight duo that everyone complains about, but is a healthy dynamic for the game. If they could've added alternate supports and teamfighters on top of this duo it would've not felt as stale as it did.

Revenant was meta, allbeit a bit overtuned. Along with Firebrand and Scourge, the 3rd class that people would complain about the most if this would come back.

Mesmer and Portal, both Power and Condi were seeing play on Mirage.

Thief was underpowered but still certainly a fine class since Mesmers were seeing play, and it brought strong teamfight value to the table through Steal, especially when Signet of Mercy was being played.

Ranger's Boonbeast was seeing play around this time, but sadly overnerfed, it was mainly the boonuptime(resistance,quickness, and prot mainly) as well as chill, slow, weakness, and immob uptime that were making it overperform. Actually would've been a very fun class to see played if it was just a bit weaker, its teamfight interactions were always fun to watch and see.

Ranger and Thief mains won't have the best time back in this meta, but small adjustments to everything could've made this meta great, even if it was being played for quite awhile at this point.

Its the best meta I've been apart of, and certainly one I could see myself enjoying for an extended period of time(like we have now)

 

[jsp.6912]

> @"Stand The Wall.6987" said:

> mega patch was good first step but no follow up now salty so i vote against my own interest

 

This

[Psycoprophet.8107]

They should put real work and effort into adjusting the outliers prepatch and left others as they were ie no damage on cc is a great idea in another mmo but gw2 it's a very bad change.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

Pre Feb meta had its own grievances, and favored a different set of people. It was not generally more balanced or less objectively boring.

 

What I want is this meta, but instead of long periods of silence between patches that end up only being minor changes, I want a handful of balance/skills team devs to have frequent, visible dialogue with the people playing the content and make changes on a set schedule (Or, if they feel no changes are necessary/they need more data/they are watching the meta, to specify that.)

 

As of right now, the only problem I have is nades, and occasionally Lich. Some classes are becoming un-shoehorned. Particularly ele.

[Anomaly.7612]

> @"Bailios.7518" said:

> I like this meta more, I just wish they'd do something about explosive entrance and zoo necros and bring back support fb pls.

 

Zoo scourge necro is just awful. I just hate any build in general that can basically AFK and passively radiate damage. That should never be ok.

[Poledra Val.1490]

People have very short memories, the meta in January was literally close to a collection of one shot builds and the chief among them were thieves literally annhilating people with one or two hits. I am not a huge fan of the current meta either but I would like to look forward and not backward when it comes meta/balance development.

[Quadox.7834]

> @"Poledra Val.1490" said:

> People have very short memories, the meta in January was literally close to a collection of one shot builds and the chief among them were thieves literally annhilating people with one or two hits. I am not a huge fan of the current meta either but I would like to look forward and not backward when it comes meta/balance development.

 

this is true, the reduction in onehots is nice but neither is the new gameplay of having to spam your wet noodle skills for 5 minutes into a teamfight while barely denting the enemy (unless you are holo...). i guess it's the resustain that is excessive.

[Gogdarth.6741]

Any shred of excitement I had for feb is dead.

[Dantheman.3589]

> @"Falan.1839" said:

> Both options are kind of bad honestly, the pre-Feb meta might have been more explosive and mechanically challenging, but it was extremely narrow. Holo had been forced out of it with the stability nerf and Scourge was kind of gone aswell. So it was basically just a bunch of Power Revs and DP thieves stealth- and/or portengaging people for oneshots and a quick snowball. The meta right now actually has a wider variety of viable classes and specs. The major issue with the February changes is that the nerf in sustain that should have followed the dps nerfs never really came for many builds. The TTK on the overall hp pools and even immunity frames isn't to high in most cases. There is just too many builds still kitten out sustain left and right without even using their healskill and that is what makes the meta dull in many cases.

 

Make a bunch of skills and traits do nothing and the meta becomes less narrow- pepeclap ?. Not as of the only thing keeping classes that were meta alive was making new builds already.

[darren.1064]

This poll isn't even close. Lets be honest-- the Post-February balance was the worst thing that has happened to Guild Wars 2 PvP and ANet cannot balance their own game.