Zerg Meta Incoming (death to support and bruisers)

[Nath Forge Tempete.1645]

It might be too soon to claim what the actual meta will be but ... since the only major healing amulet has been removed , the most powerfull build are only power glass canon build and especially the one with a lot of defensive utilities (such as block, invul and in a little less efficient perspective: evades)

 

I feel like since last tuesday patch , all ppl are playing high dmg based build ... which leads to zerging rotation game (4 ppl rotating to kill ppl on the way and on point) and leaving one good duelist defending the eventual splits. Which means that ppl with the best amount of CC/burst wins.

 

No more firebrand allowed there, druids i don't see them very often, any bruiser build (half tank, half dmg) dead since there is no more support, even scourges have turned to power reaper.

 

Then Builds/classes that are used for now...

 

# Elemantalist

 

Elementalist has kind of 3 differents builds that exists : fresh air weaver (won't argue core FA, it's less efficient in many ways now), Sword/dagger bruiser condi/power, tempest support

First tempest : No magi, no build possible... the dmg got nerfed so hard that u can't anyone badly enough to make menders worth enough and you don't have enough sustain to stay alive and support allies.

 

Then FA: while the only defensive was obsidian flesh... the rest was made thanks to superspeed and with all these mesmers /thieves these days ... a pain in the ass to stay alive. (plus it got nerfed dmg wise since they 're no more support to keep foe alive) => then nerf all power build? well whatever

 

Sword/dagger : was a build based on evades and now has some stronger barrier (which is higly appreciated) But u can survive enough now . You 're now getting zerged by 3 + enemies and dies in 5 or 6 sec without being able to apply some dmg (such as condies) or any support healing ... ppl are already down.

 

I'm a little biaised since i main ELE right.

 

# Necromancer

 

Scourge : don"t see them anymore since no Firebrand and only seems to work now in the zerg ... blood got nerfed. I don't think it 's worht traiting anymore . Especially there's ,o more firebrand

 

Reaper : Seems like the new best in slot build since it can burst down target easily . + it has shroud that can help to delay its death sentence by some second. People will complain but it's a good defensive ability.

 

# Guardian

 

Firebrand : No magi amulet , way less efficient healing/survivability. Allies can't be protected (carried) as mush as they were . Maybe we'll see some hybrid builds with mender amulet but seems like nobody interested in trying out this in a competitive perspective.

 

Core: as strong as always ... a good option to put it in the zerg of 3/4 ppl

 

DragonHunter: don't like this build and don't understand why ppl still playing it but hey ... i'm bad at guardian.

 

 

# Others

Druids : i honestly don't know ... the support was very selfish anyway ... magi removal won't have an impact on druids meta i think.

 

Thief : still quite good even if you'll probably see only S/D now since it has the best defensives abilities for thieves. Even if I saw a higher number of DeadEye in ranked these days.

 

Engi: going more defensive with paladin? I think and protection spam but still quite some dmg ... Seems like ppl are less attract to that class now

 

Mesmer: still rampaging the battlefield with high dmg build (condi and / or power) ... chronomancer bunker i don't know tho

 

 

And revenant ... can be a thing now i think in the zerg ? maybe we'll see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Feel free to leave a comment if you agree/disagree / want to say something else about zerging in spvp and the eventual loss of support builds.

**

 

 

 

 

 

[Devilman.1532]

Negative Ghostrider. The pattern is full.

[Nath Forge Tempete.1645]

It might be understood as negative feedback and kid' whining . But honestly i 've been playing spvp for years now and this week I didn't got any funny game playing my elementalist.

[Devilman.1532]

> @"Nath Forge Tempete.1645" said:

> It might be understood as negative feedback and kid' whining . But honestly i 've been playing spvp for years now and this week I didn't got any funny game playing my elementalist.

 

Well as someone who Main ele from the beginning let me ask you what build are you playing? I am finding pretty good success with mine in the current meta as it is taking shape. It is likely not to be my main for season 11 but it will see some play time dependent on team makeup.

[Nath Forge Tempete.1645]

> @"Devilman.1532" said:

> > @"Nath Forge Tempete.1645" said:

> > It might be understood as negative feedback and kid' whining . But honestly i 've been playing spvp for years now and this week I didn't got any funny game playing my elementalist.

>

> Well as someone who Main ele from the beginning let me ask you what build are you playing? I am finding pretty good success with mine in the current meta as it is taking shape. It is likely not to be my main for season 11 but it will see some play time dependent on team makeup.

 

NVM i'll play menders sword weaver (i'm bored of FA ... iv'e played it since D/D celestial was dead.... with interruption ofc)

 

But still there's no more support builds very efficient teamwise :D and people are rewarded while zerging (which is a bad mechanic)

[Devilman.1532]

I'm playing Cellofrag's variant of the Avatar Sword build. Its very solid. Take a look at it.

[thatdarnkatz.7168]

Have been playing Cello Sword as well, and it's definitely buffed relatively (other nerfs to classes brought it up) and I have held a 2v1 and 1v3 for a bit at far point in AT's, so bunker is still a role. AS for zerging, you'll see that a lot at lower levels of play, regardless of skill balance, so that's more the players than it is balance. If neither team has access to support, I see no reason so zerg up. If it's a 1v1, or a 4v4, you both have even players, and no support from FB, so.... Why pick the 4v4 when you can divide and conquer? I love when they all stick together as I can just hold most of them for a bit, and let one teammate of mine go basically uncontested and take the other 2 nodes. When I eventually die, they get 5 points, and we had a tone in the meantime. Zerg != win

 

EDIT: I play in AT's and last season I was anywhere between high gold and plat2 depending on if I played with friends (who were honestly pretty not great, which is why I moved so much)

[Kako.1930]

I also started playing that build and it's probably going to be the only viable build (or other variants of the sword/dagger weaver build). It's decent.

 

I am sad that fresh air was gutted so bad though, since I spent so much time to get the binding of ipos and now it's useless.

[sephiroth.4217]

Menders works fine on Tempest. So does Sage and a couple of other ammies with the right builds.

Weaver Sword/Dagger also has good attrition builds, once the point is yours you shouldn't lose it.

FA is gimmicky, always has been.

 

....

 

 

To think about it, there's lots of viable builds that work in PvP but all of them require the player to do more than 3 buttons and to think about what skills they are using or could use in a few more skills.

 

Use just about any other spec in the game and you have the freedom to use what ever skills you want in what ever order you want.

 

[Aza.2105]

> @"sephiroth.4217" said:

 

> To think about it, there's lots of viable builds that work in PvP but all of them require the player to do more than 3 buttons and to think about what skills they are using or could use in a few more skills.

 

The more you have to think while using a build, the worse the build is. Top tier builds always use the least amount of decision making and usually have the least amount of consequences.

 

 

[thatdarnkatz.7168]

> @"Aza.2105" said:

> > @"sephiroth.4217" said:

>

> > To think about it, there's lots of viable builds that work in PvP but all of them require the player to do more than 3 buttons and to think about what skills they are using or could use in a few more skills.

>

> The more you have to think while using a build, the worse the build is. Top tier builds always use the least amount of decision making and usually have the least amount of consequences.

>

>

 

I would disagree strongly. The builds that reign supreme in low tier gameplay you are probably correct, but that's low tier for you. Once you get into higher tiers you can't just "do your rotation" or use the same skills as players are expecting it. Sword dagger weaver has no rotation and is responsive. You will combo fields in different orders and have to play unpredictably in order to win, or just chain evades and invulns to stay alive, while also blasting water fields when tanking on far. Power shatter mesmer has to understand it's opponents and now blow it's entire burst if it is going to hit a wall because if it misses that burst, it has to bail. Sure bursty builds are powerful, and have a telegraphed burst of the same skills, but good players will see them coming, and it won't be that easy.

[sephiroth.4217]

> @"Aza.2105" said:

> > @"sephiroth.4217" said:

>

> > To think about it, there's lots of viable builds that work in PvP but all of them require the player to do more than 3 buttons and to think about what skills they are using or could use in a few more skills.

>

> The more you have to think while using a build, the worse the build is. Top tier builds always use the least amount of decision making and usually have the least amount of consequences.

>

>

 

This is why so many good players that have been around from the start complain that the players in platinum have no idea what they're doing. So I guess you're right, get a simple build that can carry you.

[Mr Godlike.6098]

To be honest everything is playable even in plat if you know how to rotate...so yea you can play even tempest...but is it worth it? Everything does better job in any role (+1 build, 1v1, bunker, support) with far less effort. Anet made ele enjoyable only for masochist and still no any top ATm team found reason to have anything ele related in their teams. But it still getting nerfed with every patch.