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My Rambling Thoughts About Strike Missions.


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It feels strange to comment on this with how sporadic my playtime has been over the years, but similar thoughts has been going my mind recently.

I think it's important to remember that most players are average. By that, I mean that we are not in a world of "hardcore grinders" and "useless n00bs". What this means is that your average, no reqs PUG is going to do... okay. That's fine for most content.

The discussion my buddies and I have on this is what we call Cheese vs Skill. For instance, if you can stack on the boss's butt with a bunch of Zerker DPS and 1-2 Healers and ignore all boss mechanics, that's "cheese", and if you can run around like a chicken with its head cut off while doing damage, taking zero damage, and reviving downed players all at once, that's "skill."

Cheese is way easier than skill. No two ways about it. If you can ignore boss mechanics, the game gets reduced to a Patchwerk fight (err... Golem fight? I'm old, shhh). Less mechanics to interact with and higher overall DPS, means you kill the boss faster, which means less mechanics to avoid or ignore, so the fight goes quickly and smoothly.

Until it doesn't.

One dps goes down. So another goes for the rally and drops. So the Healer goes for the revive and does less healing so another DPS dies but there's still red circles on the ground and now you can't CC the boss cause you've got three deeps taking dirt naps and the big AoE drops the healer and then the run.

The meta is what it is because it works, but it also reinforces itself. If people rely on 1-2 healers and high dps, people will only look for 1-2 healers and high dps. Because people are only used to running with 1-2 healers and high dps, people hyper focus on rotations and forget how to avoid mechanics.

As a for instance: take LT Kohler from Ascalon Catacombs. I know I'm going way back, but bear with me. How many of you remember how to avoid his scorpion wire pull into spin attack? Do you even care? Does it drop you? I challenge you to take away your ascended gear, and build a 5man team of level 35s and go run AC Explorable. Let me know how it goes. Back in the day, PUGs for AC used to skip LT Kohler because he was considered too hard.

I'm mostly rambling, but I'll wrap it up with:

-Dead DPS do zero damage-Being a "DPS" doing <3k is just as bad, even if you don't ever drop-git gud-Be excellent to each other

:)

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@Vecuu.2018 said:

Cheese is way easier than skill. No two ways about it. If you can ignore boss mechanics, the game gets reduced to a Patchwerk fight (err... Golem fight? I'm old, shhh). Less mechanics to interact with and higher overall DPS, means you kill the boss faster, which means less mechanics to avoid or ignore, so the fight goes quickly and smoothly.

Until it doesn't.

One dps goes down. So another goes for the rally and drops. So the Healer goes for the revive and does less healing so another DPS dies but there's still red circles on the ground and now you can't CC the boss cause you've got three deeps taking dirt naps and the big AoE drops the healer and then the run.

This has been my experience as well. There are so many players who run berserker builds and don't know (or care to know) any of the boss mechanics. This is why I often find myself in Fraenir groups, where I seem to be the only one dodging his shockwave, and then the rest of the party is down on the ground. People just stack on the boss and don't bother to dodge, and then blaim the lack of a 2nd healer for wiping.

Look folks, this isn't very complicated! He hangs in the air for several seconds and has a very clear audio cue. You can't miss it. Just dodge when he lands and thats it!

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@Mad Queen Malafide.7512 said:

Cheese is way easier than skill. No two ways about it. If you can ignore boss mechanics, the game gets reduced to a Patchwerk fight (err... Golem fight? I'm old, shhh). Less mechanics to interact with and higher overall DPS, means you kill the boss faster, which means less mechanics to avoid or ignore, so the fight goes quickly and smoothly.

Until it doesn't.

One dps goes down. So another goes for the rally and drops. So the Healer goes for the revive and does less healing so another DPS dies but there's still red circles on the ground and now you can't CC the boss cause you've got three deeps taking dirt naps and the big AoE drops the healer and then the run.

This has been my experience as well. There are so many players who run berserker builds and don't know (or care to know) any of the boss mechanics. This is why I often find myself in Fraenir groups, where I seem to be the only one dodging his shockwave, and then the rest of the party is down on the ground. People just stack on the boss and don't bother to dodge, and then blaim the lack of a 2nd healer for wiping.

Look folks, this isn't very complicated! He hangs in the air for several seconds and has a very clear audio cue. You can't miss it. Just dodge when he lands and thats it!

Just fyi you can jump the wave he do when he lands aswell. ( kinda like Tequatl's waves)Kinda odd your against kp group when you see first hand what they want to avoid, this being a prime example.

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@Linken.6345 said:Just fyi you can jump the wave he do when he lands aswell. ( kinda like Tequatl's waves)Kinda odd your against kp group when you see first hand what they want to avoid, this being a prime example.

I think there's a difference between people asking for kp, and people not dodging at all. Those two are not the same. They may be related (as in, people ask for kp to avoid terrible players), but does it have to be either one extreme or the other?

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@Mad Queen Malafide.7512 said:

@Linken.6345 said:Just fyi you can jump the wave he do when he lands aswell. ( kinda like Tequatl's waves)Kinda odd your against kp group when you see first hand what they want to avoid, this being a prime example.

I think there's a difference between people asking for kp, and people not dodging at all. Those two are not the same. They may be related (as in, people ask for kp to avoid terrible players), but does it have to be either one extreme or the other?

It is exactly why people ask for kp, I run no li squads just ask for specific roles.If I search for 1-2qb quickness giving firebrands a guardian spec for those who dont know.On average I have to kick 5-15 people before someone with the correct class and spec joins.

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Not really surprised to see this kind of behavior from mid-tier players. You get this a lot in T3 (or early T4) Fractals and around Gold level in PVP. An issue that is hardly unique to GW2.People at these stages are starting to grasp the Meta and they are able to perform the basics but they are far from being able to understand why things are used the way they are. And they are thrice as toxic for it.

Anyone worth their salt would know that there are non-meta builds and there are non-meta builds. Most healing heavy or supportive builds such as a proper Healingbrand are rather situational. They aren’t required when everything goes well. But they are the stuff that carries people hard when needed, when performances aren’t even close to where they could be. Pretty much sounds like Strikes in a nutshell.

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