What builds do you wish were meta?

Throwing out what is likely to be meta, what do you wish performed well enough to be a great build for raids/fractals?

Here’s my list:
S/D Thief or DaredevilLongbow SoulbeastRifle DeadeyeMace/mace BerserkerStaff support Firebrand

Chrono dps s/s and gs respectively.

Interesting topic.I wish each profession would have at least 1 power and 1 condi DPS build that does competitive DPS (within 5-10% of the currently TOP build).Power warrior, ranger and necromancer are currently extremely weak, but I think I would enjoy playing all of them, if they were to receive a reasonable buff.

Mace/Shield & Hammer Minstrel FirebrandGS & Axe/Axe Power WarriorSword/Sword Power HeraldGS Power ReaperMagi ScourgeP/P Support DPS DeadeyePower Soulbeast

Interesting topic. I think the builds I enjoy most and would want to play in a raid setting that currently aren't meta are:

• Power Necromancer
• Power Revenant
• Power Warrior
• Quickness Support Firebrand
• DPS/Alacrity Chronomancer
• DPS/Alacrity Renegade

I kinda wish Necro actually had a support spec, but any viable necro build at all would already be very welcome.

@Rising Dusk.2408 said:

• Quickness Support Firebrand
• DPS/Alacrity Chronomancer
• DPS/Alacrity RenegadeOne could argue these builds are meta, even if they aren't very common. I occasionaly saw groups that opt to shift the responsibilites of providing boons around, which leads to some interesting comps. You can indeed have your firebrand spec into quickness and allow chronomancer to do more DPS. In the end, the amount of DPS that chrono gains is very comparable to the amount that firebrand loses, which means that this comp is neither better nor worse. It's just different. The reason people don't play this is because it's impractical, requires your team to be 100% coordinated and everyone be aware of their role. As such, it can only be performed in static groups, not in pugs. But despite the lack of flexibility, these builds and comps are almost equal in performance to our standard meta. ;)

@maxwelgm.4315 said:I kinda wish Necro actually had a support spec, but any viable necro build at all would already be very welcome.

I believe scourge + healing power = better barriers i'm not a necro player but it works that way for weavers.No one for DPS Power Chronos lol? Surprising.

@Genesis.5169 said:

@"maxwelgm.4315" said:I kinda wish Necro actually had a support spec, but any viable necro build at all would already be very welcome.

I think I worded myself wrong there, because Necros are indeed "viable" in a strict sense; barriers do scale with healing power but their cap is on the receiving player's vitality, which is a bad design decision (to have the choice of stats of others affect your performance in supporting). However, there is still no proper active/offensive support such as barrier increasing % of damage while it lasts (would be awesome and force people to time their barriers since barriers are supposed to play on bursts anyway), or a trait (which basically every class but Necro has) that increases a base stat on others by a fixed value. Our condi builds are butchered in favor of "strong support" that while support-ish is not strong at all, and our power builds are butchered in favor of Reaper/Core having a second health bar and being "master of conditions". Necros are half decent at many things at once and meta/optimal in none.

Also Power Mes (not necessarily Chrono) would definitely make my day as well, but at once it also seems dangerous (10 player distortion supergroup pls?).

Bring back dagger/warhorn fresh air tempest dpsAlso want power reaper, power war power ranger, power rev

Power needs to be buffed to compete with condi

@Tarasicodissa.7084 said:Interesting topic.I wish each profession would have at least 1 power and 1 condi DPS build that does competitive DPS (within 5-10% of the currently TOP build).Power warrior, ranger and necromancer are currently extremely weak, but I think I would enjoy playing all of them, if they were to receive a reasonable buff.

This right here is how it should be!

-Power alacrity chrono-Power Sw+Sw/GS Mesmer-Shatterchrono (a bit less alacrity for insane boons)-Heal-engi (totally underrated)-Power Soulbeast (Not as weak as people seem to think it is)-Grieving Warr and Elementalist-Power revenant builds (not as high max potential, but super-easy to reach it)-Pistol+Pistol Thief (Most braindead build ever and still quite effective)-Heal-Scourge-Necrobuilds in general-Boonbot deadeye-Power D/D Deadeye (Another braindead build with quite decent damage)-Power warrior (still requires a lot of boosting for PVE)-Tank-Scourge, tank-Firebrand and Tank-Tempest (all 3 are also healers while at it)-Quickness/mightbot Condi-FB-Heal-boonbot-tank Warrior (now that'd be quite a decent flak kiter)

Kitty's actually played most of the builds she mentioned in raids with quite decent success. Meme is strong in this one.

Power Rev, Power Soulbeast, Power D/D Deadeye, Power Warrior

:(

@Dahkeus.8243 said:Throwing out what is likely to be meta, what do you wish performed well enough to be a great build for raids/fractals?

Here’s my list:

S/D Thief or DaredevilLongbow SoulbeastRifle DeadeyeMace/mace BerserkerStaff support Firebrand

@Dahkeus.8243 said:Throwing out what is likely to be meta, what do you wish performed well enough to be a great build for raids/fractals?

Here’s my list:

S/D Thief or DaredevilLongbow SoulbeastRifle DeadeyeMace/mace BerserkerStaff support Firebrand

I love deadeye. I’m new to raiding, and I’m not the biggest person on staff, but it’s okay. I’d love to use my rifle. Deadeye seems easier to me

power reaperpower revpower soulbeast

Sw/Sw power herald

Any other tank besides chrono

Anything thief really. For all bosses and not just those few encounters where some extremely friendly group would be willing to take condi thief.

@Tarasicodissa.7084 said:Interesting topic.I wish each profession would have at least 1 power and 1 condi DPS build that does competitive DPS (within 5-10% of the currently TOP build).Power warrior, ranger and necromancer are currently extremely weak, but I think I would enjoy playing all of them, if they were to receive a reasonable buff.

I'd much rather see each profession with at least 1 DPS build and 1 support build than have 2 DPS builds that simply use a different form of damage. In the end those 2 builds are still all about DPS, and thus are very similar.

@OriOri.8724 said:

@Tarasicodissa.7084 said:Interesting topic.I wish each profession would have at least 1 power and 1 condi DPS build that does competitive DPS (within 5-10% of the currently TOP build).Power warrior, ranger and necromancer are currently extremely weak, but I think I would enjoy playing all of them, if they were to receive a reasonable buff.

That's an even better suggestion/solution!!

@OriOri.8724 said:

@"Tarasicodissa.7084" said:Interesting topic.I wish each profession would have at least 1 power and 1 condi DPS build that does competitive DPS (within 5-10% of the currently TOP build).Power warrior, ranger and necromancer are currently extremely weak, but I think I would enjoy playing all of them, if they were to receive a reasonable buff.

When many fights "require" (or are so much better) with one form of damage, ie KC or Dhuum or Fractals in general, it can be a bit annoying.

I love playing my ranger as condi soulbeast and a druid, but I'm pretty much forced to multi class if I want to play power effectively, which sucks.

Well, Power soulbeast isnt that bad(it needs some buffs, like adding Power pet to porcine family, maybe adding sword dmg multiplier as well to gs trait and making sword auto bit quicker) i mean with beastmastery instead of skirmishing you should get similiar numbers to dh's in bursty fights like KC

@OriOri.8724 said:

@"Tarasicodissa.7084" said:Interesting topic.I wish each profession would have at least 1 power and 1 condi DPS build that does competitive DPS (within 5-10% of the currently TOP build).Power warrior, ranger and necromancer are currently extremely weak, but I think I would enjoy playing all of them, if they were to receive a reasonable buff.

Let's see...Mesmer has power DPS-mesmes, support/tank chrono, condimirage.Necromancer has Power reaper, condi scourge and heal/barrier scourge.Elementalist has power and condibuilds and auramancer.Ranger has power soulbeast, condisoulbeast and druid.Engineer has power holosmith, condiengineer and heal-engineer.Thief has power teef/DD/DE and condi DD. (and De-builds also have some nice boonsupport capability if built for that, on top of DPSing)Revenant has condirenegade, power renegade/herald and heal/support renegade/herald.Guardian has power DH, condi-FB and heal/support FB.Warrior has power berserker and condiberserker, both with off-support capability.

The main issue here is that those need to be balanced a bit better and also community's too stuck with "only this build works 'cause it's the optimal meta"-mentality. And of all those, there's at least 1 working weapon combo good enough to pull the player's own weight while getting the kills. Kitty can say that 'cause she's pretty much played those all in raids during last 8 months. Another, more subtle yet perhaps greater, issue is that weapons aren't quite balanced. For many builds, there's a couple weapons that work way better than any alternatives despite the large arsenal of weapons most classes have available. In that regard, elementalist and ranger DPS-builds are in best balance, in Kitty's opinion based on her experience playing and mathing them.

Sword/axe&LB -ranger

Meditation gaurdian

Power axe reaper

Jalis revanent

Ventari tank

Hammer gaurdian/ warrior

Any class should have at least one power, condi and support/utility/specific role filling build that's "close enough" to being meta. Additionally, any class should have at least one "close enough" build per elite specialization (and at least one for core class).

Power Reaper DPSPower Reaper Tank