Honest impression of the game after 7 years

[frareanselm.1925]

At the beginning of the virus quaratine i bought the Pof expansion after 7 years playing core gw2.Before that I always compalined about how the new specs were overpowered respect to core. I struggled so much in pvp that i could only beat newbies. in PVE I only felt powerful with power guardian and vanilla condi necro .I arrived late because I bought the game after the BIG NERF, and I couldnt enjoy the golden age.I tested all professions for weeks. I've "wasted" 3 months leveling up 5 characters and playing with them.I was right in the past, Dragonhunter, Firebrand, Holosmith and Reaper are ridiculously overpowered. If fact I find FB super boring, but I had to make one because the DPS was excessive and I didnt wanted to miss it.The case of the weaver is another chapter, because you have to be a "phenom talent" to play well this class and the skill of a chinese pianist, to do the same damage than a Reaper smashing random buttons.The disbalance is terrible, and more noticeable in PvP. Mirage has the same DPS like a ranger pet.Even condis are disbalanced, Burn is OP while torment is a joke.All the time I tried to find a funny build/class combo, but the fun ones are nerfed.One of the aspects that anet should improve is combat fluidity, it's annoying to play a engi with kits when you have to swap constantly you lose 1 second everytime, this feels clunky. The same with all professions that require constat swapping.

After trying all the good builds from metab and snowcrows, never felt powerful enough. My general feeling about the game is of FRUSTRATION.If you have to go full offensive stats to make good damage and have 11k HP stressed for your life all the time its not a casual friendly game.Also part of my frustration comes from the downscaling system which works really bad. It should downscale only the basic stats not precision, expertise, ferocity, concentration. This way has no sense go full berserker in a 35 dungeon if your crit chance is reduced to 30% for example.

The meta builds, being so stressful to play, as hard to master than playing a music instrument, dont reward with the right DPS.

This is how I feel, powerless and frustrated.

[Trise.2865]

You're the one letting the game play you instead of playing it.

[ChillyKoti.1928]

I don't really know... I decided to not care too much about "optimisation" unless I absolutely have to play with people that requires that (I'm not a weight to a team, I alwayd carry extra equipments).

But I generally just pick a build in a sense of; what sort of playstyle would I have the most fun? And becausr of that I have sometimes some cliché but moslty very off-meta combos.

Precision... I don't know... In my opinion, 100% crit chance should NEVER be a norm. It's legit the maximum. I disagree to let stats like precision have a special treatment in downscaling.

I agree with your fluidity suggestion and mostly because I do play Engineer quite often and losing a second of action can break the beat of a fight.

I also partially agree with your claim about meta builds. They are indeed kinda stressfull to play, but I'll say it's mostly because of other peoples, beeing very demanding to others in term of performance.About meta builds... Those are only "required" by some people. Those were and are not official to ArenaNet.Altough I indeed, never raided, I do all other content, but I either join some friends or I create my own "casual" group.I don't know about others, but this is how I have fun in the game regarding gameplay.

[frareanselm.1925]

@"Edge.8724" said:I don't really know... I decided to not care too much about "optimisation" unless I absolutely have to play with people that requires that (I'm not a weight to a team, I alwayd carry extra equipments).

But I generally just pick a build in a sense of; what sort of playstyle would I have the most fun? And becausr of that I have sometimes some cliché but moslty very off-meta combos.

Precision... I don't know... In my opinion, 100% crit chance should NEVER be a norm. It's legit the maximum. I disagree to let stats like precision have a special treatment in downscaling.

I agree with your fluidity suggestion and mostly because I do play Engineer quite often and losing a second of action can break the beat of a fight.

I also partially agree with your claim about meta builds. They are indeed kinda stressfull to play, but I'll say it's mostly because of other peoples, beeing very demanding to others in term of performance.About meta builds... Those are only "required" by some people. Those were and are not official to ArenaNet.Altough I indeed, never raided, I do all other content, but I either join some friends or I create my own "casual" group.I don't know about others, but this is how I have fun in the game regarding gameplay.

Oh I had tons of fun with the Elementalist full summoned weapons, really fun. But it's abandoned and not factible in any circumstances. The same with turrets, abandoned and the devs dont actualize them.

[ChillyKoti.1928]

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@"Edge.8724" said:I don't really know... I decided to not care too much about "optimisation" unless I absolutely have to play with people that requires that (I'm not a weight to a team, I alwayd carry extra equipments).

But I generally just pick a build in a sense of; what sort of playstyle would I have the most fun? And becausr of that I have sometimes some cliché but moslty very off-meta combos.

Precision... I don't know... In my opinion, 100% crit chance should NEVER be a norm. It's legit the maximum. I disagree to let stats like precision have a special treatment in downscaling.

I agree with your fluidity suggestion and mostly because I do play Engineer quite often and losing a second of action can break the beat of a fight.

I also partially agree with your claim about meta builds. They are indeed kinda stressfull to play, but I'll say it's mostly because of other peoples, beeing very demanding to others in term of performance.About meta builds... Those are only "required" by some people. Those were and are not official to ArenaNet.Altough I indeed, never raided, I do all other content, but I either join some friends or I create my own "casual" group.I don't know about others, but this is how I have fun in the game regarding gameplay.

Oh I had tons of fun with the Elementalist full summoned weapons, really fun. But it's abandoned and not factible in any circumstances. The same with turrets, abandoned and the devs dont actualize them.

Yeah, I agree. A lot of bad changes happened in the game lately.

[Obtena.7952]

@"frareanselm.1925" said:At the beginning of the virus quaratine i bought the Pof expansion after 7 years playing core gw2.Before that I always compalined about how the new specs were overpowered respect to core. I struggled so much in pvp that i could only beat newbies. in PVE I only felt powerful with power guardian and vanilla condi necro .I arrived late because I bought the game after the BIG NERF, and I couldnt enjoy the golden age.I tested all professions for weeks. I've "wasted" 3 months leveling up 5 characters and playing with them.I was right in the past, Dragonhunter, Firebrand, Holosmith and Reaper are ridiculously overpowered. If fact I find FB super boring, but I had to make one because the DPS was excessive and I didnt wanted to miss it.The case of the weaver is another chapter, because you have to be a "phenom talent" to play well this class and the skill of a chinese pianist, to do the same damage than a Reaper smashing random buttons.The disbalance is terrible, and more noticeable in PvP. Mirage has the same DPS like a ranger pet.Even condis are disbalanced, Burn is OP while torment is a joke.All the time I tried to find a funny build/class combo, but the fun ones are nerfed.One of the aspects that anet should improve is combat fluidity, it's annoying to play a engi with kits when you have to swap constantly you lose 1 second everytime, this feels clunky. The same with all professions that require constat swapping.

After trying all the good builds from metab and snowcrows, never felt powerful enough. My general feeling about the game is of FRUSTRATION.If you have to go full offensive stats to make good damage and have 11k HP stressed for your life all the time its not a casual friendly game.Also part of my frustration comes from the downscaling system which works really bad. It should downscale only the basic stats not precision, expertise, ferocity, concentration. This way has no sense go full berserker in a 35 dungeon if your crit chance is reduced to 30% for example.

The meta builds, being so stressful to play, as hard to master than playing a music instrument, dont reward with the right DPS.

This is how I feel, powerless and frustrated.

You aren't playing the game according to it's fundamental philosophy. Play how you want, not how some meta build site tells you to.

I mean, you are the same guy complaining you don't get enough gold by farming stuff to sell on the TP ... that's another example how you are playing AGAINST the game design, not with it.

[Blocki.4931]

Snowcrows builds are not for open world. Of course you will struggle. You can't just copy and then you're good at the game, you will have issues learning and adapting.Seriously, the most important thing is just having 25 might. Ignore everything else. Suddenly the game is very easy.

[zaekeon.5128]

I’ve found it much more enjoyable to play open world with dire/maurauder gear. I can stay alive with less stress in the huge blob of aoe and damage and lag from a boss and end up doing more damage than I would have being dead. Playing full glass cannon in a fractal would be different and not as stressful if you had a healer. I agree on the meta builds...when I look at a build and it’s rotation is 62 steps that is excessive compared to other MMOs. It’s not fun for me personally to play that way and I have to consider what performance I’m losing trying to do that rotation. Until I can perfect it I’ll just play what I’m good at and work on the high end meta stuff as a personal goal.

This game provides a lot of freedom of choice, don’t forget that.

[Vilin.8056]

A lot of these sounds like a skill gap problem.You have least 5 years of blank slate unchallenged inside core Tyria to understand some core fundamentals of the class and combat, therefore does not understand how to perform or simplify your skill set.

I recommend look up for some simple to play, cheap to build, yet high performance open world builds.

A forum member also contributed a Weaver guide that is simple to play, tanky, cheap to make, yet very powerful.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/107218/open-world-domination-fire-weaver

[Arcaniaxs.4519]

You can play daredevil with full berserker and yet have 3k+ self healing per second just by auto attacking with staff lol... just use the buttom trait in the grandmaster traits in critical strikes traitline. Using healing signet is also a way of doing it. U still would have 13k hp. Byt the amount of dodges and healing and the dmg is just enough to do raids/fractals in casual groups and chill runs. Also works all over pve

[Rogue.8235]

Interesting. It seems that you prioritize in-game rewards rather than combat mechanics and game play. If you require meta-builds and "effectiveness" rather than what's fun to play, you might be prioritizing the wrong thing. If you found efficiency itself to be fun, then it's not an issue. However, you seem to be dissatisfied with the situation. Try focusing on what's fun to play rather than getting the shinies. I make my own builds across all 9 professions and have not had a problem completing any content I want to play. I play all 9 professions because I enjoy the actual game play and witching it up.

My overall message is to try to figure out what the most satisfying components of the game are (for you), and play around that.

If this is a total misread on my part let me know.

[Josiah.2967]

Give the game more time. There is an easier weaver build that does 17K DPS in the open world with more survivability and healing than Reaper. Reaper can't competed end game at all, which is said..it's a DPS spec that does a fraction 2/3 of other specs in raids.

I agree with Guardian. We have entered Guardian Wars. Extremely overpowered and easy. Master of all game modes.

[frareanselm.1925]

@"Rogue.8235" said:Interesting. It seems that you prioritize in-game rewards rather than combat mechanics and game play. If you require meta-builds and "effectiveness" rather than what's fun to play, you might be prioritizing the wrong thing. If you found efficiency itself to be fun, then it's not an issue. However, you seem to be dissatisfied with the situation. Try focusing on what's fun to play rather than getting the shinies. I make my own builds across all 9 professions and have not had a problem completing any content I want to play. I play all 9 professions because I enjoy the actual game play and witching it up.

My overall message is to try to figure out what the most satisfying components of the game are (for you), and play around that.

If this is a total misread on my part let me know.

Yes, "effectivenes" is important in the "fun factor" for me, combined to the playstyle I like.The issue is, except guardian, there arent profeesions that perform good i all modes or situations. Some fractal bosses have to be fought with condi classes and power are not factible, other bosses the opposite. I feel anet forces us to play all 9 professions, which is bad because you cant main and become a master in one in concrete.I've seen thiefs in pvp doing combos that would require months or even years to master.As i said before there are classes unplayable in wvw actually. If I master my mesmer in pve, when I want to play wvw I've to pick another class which I have low knoledge and practice, then I'll get banged and end up angry and frustrated.

[lummuss.6850]

I agree with many things you said. The downscale is a pain in the ass! Have you seen how humiliating the healing of a healer in -70 level dungeons is? It's horrible !!! They shouldn't level a character's attributes so much when doing dungeons or playing on lower level maps. My opinion...

[Senqu.8054]

I think you have made a good point here. I don’t agree with everything you said but the philosophy of guild wars was, or how I personally perceived it, that you can do everything you want in your own style and get a outcome similar to others. I can’t deny that guild wars 2 has a huge inconsistency about that. Sure, meta is meta but the difference between some things is massive.

[Rogue.8235]

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@"Rogue.8235" said:Interesting. It seems that you prioritize in-game rewards rather than combat mechanics and game play. If you require meta-builds and "effectiveness" rather than what's fun to play, you might be prioritizing the wrong thing. If you found efficiency itself to be fun, then it's not an issue. However, you seem to be dissatisfied with the situation. Try focusing on what's fun to play rather than getting the shinies. I make my own builds across all 9 professions and have not had a problem completing any content I want to play. I play all 9 professions because I enjoy the actual game play and witching it up.

My overall message is to try to figure out what the most satisfying components of the game are (for you), and play around that.

If this is a total misread on my part let me know.

Yes, "effectivenes" is important in the "fun factor" for me, combined to the playstyle I like.The issue is, except guardian, there arent profeesions that perform good i all modes or situations. Some fractal bosses have to be fought with condi classes and power are not factible, other bosses the opposite. I feel anet forces us to play all 9 professions, which is bad because you cant main and become a master in one in concrete.I've seen thiefs in pvp doing combos that would require months or even years to master.As i said before there are classes unplayable in wvw actually. If I master my mesmer in pve, when I want to play wvw I've to pick another class which I have low knoledge and practice, then I'll get banged and end up angry and frustrated.

It seems that efficiency in itself is not the primary enjoyment you get out of the game. If it was, then you wouldn't care about weapons or classes or traits, your enjoyment would simply be optimization of the constraints within the current balance patch.

I'll use myself to help illustrate my point. In GW2 my primary enjoyment is the play all 9 professions within my own, personal play style in 3rd person games. I don't care to optimize, necessarily. I just enjoy the combat system of GW2 and play it. In Civilization, I am absolutely all about efficiency. My enjoyment is purely to reach my benchmarks on what is a perfectly executed game on the highest difficulty level. I don't care what units, what civilization, what leader I use. Just maximized optimization.

I would be miserable if I played GW2 that way, because I like to play GW2 as an immersive experience in the combat system. Sometimes I jump on my reaper with a greatsword because I want to play as a dark magic dude with a big sword. No other reason. However, in PVP I stick to one playstyle and play whatever profession is best able to execute on that in the current meta (I have the mindset of a roamer, so I always need roaming builds). I can do this in PvP because I have always played every profession anyways, and it's still playing my preferred playstyle. I'm perfectly fine with the compromise for PvP because my enjoyment switched from total immersion to optimization for my personal benchmarks.

A way to better enjoy games is to focus on what you find enjoyment in. You stated that WvW is something you want to do. Maybe focus less on th aesthetics of what you want to play and more on the mechanics of what you want to play.

[Khisanth.2948]

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@"Rogue.8235" said:Interesting. It seems that you prioritize in-game rewards rather than combat mechanics and game play. If you require meta-builds and "effectiveness" rather than what's fun to play, you might be prioritizing the wrong thing. If you found efficiency itself to be fun, then it's not an issue. However, you seem to be dissatisfied with the situation. Try focusing on what's fun to play rather than getting the shinies. I make my own builds across all 9 professions and have not had a problem completing any content I want to play. I play all 9 professions because I enjoy the actual game play and witching it up.

My overall message is to try to figure out what the most satisfying components of the game are (for you), and play around that.

If this is a total misread on my part let me know.

Yes, "effectivenes" is important in the "fun factor" for me, combined to the playstyle I like.The issue is, except guardian, there arent profeesions that perform good i all modes or situations. Some fractal bosses have to be fought with condi classes and power are not factible, other bosses the opposite. I feel anet forces us to play all 9 professions, which is bad because you cant main and become a master in one in concrete.I've seen thiefs in pvp doing combos that would require months or even years to master.As i said before there are classes unplayable in wvw actually. If I master my mesmer in pve, when I want to play wvw I've to pick another class which I have low knoledge and practice, then I'll get banged and end up angry and frustrated.

This combined with the original post looks like you just want something that can do everything without having to put in much effort and remains viable forever. I don't think that will ever exist.

[frareanselm.1925]

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@"Rogue.8235" said:Interesting. It seems that you prioritize in-game rewards rather than combat mechanics and game play. If you require meta-builds and "effectiveness" rather than what's fun to play, you might be prioritizing the wrong thing. If you found efficiency itself to be fun, then it's not an issue. However, you seem to be dissatisfied with the situation. Try focusing on what's fun to play rather than getting the shinies. I make my own builds across all 9 professions and have not had a problem completing any content I want to play. I play all 9 professions because I enjoy the actual game play and witching it up.

My overall message is to try to figure out what the most satisfying components of the game are (for you), and play around that.

If this is a total misread on my part let me know.

Yes, "effectivenes" is important in the "fun factor" for me, combined to the playstyle I like.The issue is, except guardian, there arent profeesions that perform good i all modes or situations. Some fractal bosses have to be fought with condi classes and power are not factible, other bosses the opposite. I feel anet forces us to play all 9 professions, which is bad because you cant main and become a master in one in concrete.I've seen thiefs in pvp doing combos that would require months or even years to master.As i said before there are classes unplayable in wvw actually. If I master my mesmer in pve, when I want to play wvw I've to pick another class which I have low knoledge and practice, then I'll get banged and end up angry and frustrated.

This combined with the original post looks like you just want something that can do everything without having to put in much effort and remains viable forever. I don't think that will ever exist.

It exists, and is called guardian, I told in the first post that imo is overpowered and is good doing everything, but I find it so boring that I deleted the character to have a empty slot for a fun one.If guardian can be good at everywhere why not other professions are tuned to be equally balanced?The overall feeling is Guardian is the favourite Anet dev's class, they love it, and in the other hand they dislike mesmer and thief .

[Xenash.1245]

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@"Rogue.8235" said:Interesting. It seems that you prioritize in-game rewards rather than combat mechanics and game play. If you require meta-builds and "effectiveness" rather than what's fun to play, you might be prioritizing the wrong thing. If you found efficiency itself to be fun, then it's not an issue. However, you seem to be dissatisfied with the situation. Try focusing on what's fun to play rather than getting the shinies. I make my own builds across all 9 professions and have not had a problem completing any content I want to play. I play all 9 professions because I enjoy the actual game play and witching it up.

My overall message is to try to figure out what the most satisfying components of the game are (for you), and play around that.

If this is a total misread on my part let me know.

Yes, "effectivenes" is important in the "fun factor" for me, combined to the playstyle I like.The issue is, except guardian, there arent profeesions that perform good i all modes or situations. Some fractal bosses have to be fought with condi classes and power are not factible, other bosses the opposite. I feel anet forces us to play all 9 professions, which is bad because you cant main and become a master in one in concrete.I've seen thiefs in pvp doing combos that would require months or even years to master.As i said before there are classes unplayable in wvw actually. If I master my mesmer in pve, when I want to play wvw I've to pick another class which I have low knoledge and practice, then I'll get banged and end up angry and frustrated.

If it helps at all those combos you see I assume aren't really all that hard and it's more just a factor of fame sense which you simply get with practice. There's also an issue with some people just not having a monitor with a high enough refresh rate which can in turn make it a hell of a lot harder to keep up with everything you intend to do in any given situation.

Like for example mobas generally aren't hard for me personally because I'm used to most players moving and acting in roughly the same pattern so I can time when and where I need to be at any given time, the same logic can generally be applied to GW2 and how people act in either of the given pvp modes. The players you're seeing doing these things are most are probably just used to how things are by now and know when and how to react go any given situation.

So in my opinion the best thing you can do in that situation is to just get a bit creative and to try and throw off whomever you might be playing with, it might not throw them off for long. But if you can just throw them off for a moment or two it could potentially give you enough time to abuse the situation to you benefit.

Sorry about all the the random banter here.

[Khisanth.2948]

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@"Rogue.8235" said:Interesting. It seems that you prioritize in-game rewards rather than combat mechanics and game play. If you require meta-builds and "effectiveness" rather than what's fun to play, you might be prioritizing the wrong thing. If you found efficiency itself to be fun, then it's not an issue. However, you seem to be dissatisfied with the situation. Try focusing on what's fun to play rather than getting the shinies. I make my own builds across all 9 professions and have not had a problem completing any content I want to play. I play all 9 professions because I enjoy the actual game play and witching it up.

My overall message is to try to figure out what the most satisfying components of the game are (for you), and play around that.

If this is a total misread on my part let me know.

Yes, "effectivenes" is important in the "fun factor" for me, combined to the playstyle I like.The issue is, except guardian, there arent profeesions that perform good i all modes or situations. Some fractal bosses have to be fought with condi classes and power are not factible, other bosses the opposite. I feel anet forces us to play all 9 professions, which is bad because you cant main and become a master in one in concrete.I've seen thiefs in pvp doing combos that would require months or even years to master.As i said before there are classes unplayable in wvw actually. If I master my mesmer in pve, when I want to play wvw I've to pick another class which I have low knoledge and practice, then I'll get banged and end up angry and frustrated.

This combined with the original post looks like you just want something that can do everything without having to put in much effort and remains viable forever. I don't think that will ever exist.

It exists, and is called guardian, I told in the first post that imo is overpowered and is good doing everything, but I find it so boring that I deleted the character to have a empty slot for a fun one.If guardian can be good at everywhere why not other professions are tuned to be equally balanced?The overall feeling is Guardian is the favourite Anet dev's class, they love it, and in the other hand they dislike mesmer and thief .

I think you are missing the point. The balance team failing to do their job properly is certainly possible but having every class like that is equivalent to simply lowering the game's difficulty significantly. That is the thing which isn't likely to exist.

Mesmer was also pretty broken for a while. The simpler answer that doesn't require any sort of favoritism is that ANet is not very good at balancing.

[Obtena.7952]

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@frareanselm.1925 said:

@"Rogue.8235" said:Interesting. It seems that you prioritize in-game rewards rather than combat mechanics and game play. If you require meta-builds and "effectiveness" rather than what's fun to play, you might be prioritizing the wrong thing. If you found efficiency itself to be fun, then it's not an issue. However, you seem to be dissatisfied with the situation. Try focusing on what's fun to play rather than getting the shinies. I make my own builds across all 9 professions and have not had a problem completing any content I want to play. I play all 9 professions because I enjoy the actual game play and witching it up.

My overall message is to try to figure out what the most satisfying components of the game are (for you), and play around that.

If this is a total misread on my part let me know.

Yes, "effectivenes" is important in the "fun factor" for me, combined to the playstyle I like.The issue is, except guardian, there arent profeesions that perform good i all modes or situations. Some fractal bosses have to be fought with condi classes and power are not factible, other bosses the opposite. I feel anet forces us to play all 9 professions, which is bad because you cant main and become a master in one in concrete.I've seen thiefs in pvp doing combos that would require months or even years to master.As i said before there are classes unplayable in wvw actually. If I master my mesmer in pve, when I want to play wvw I've to pick another class which I have low knoledge and practice, then I'll get banged and end up angry and frustrated.

This combined with the original post looks like you just want something that can do everything without having to put in much effort and remains viable forever. I don't think that will ever exist.

It exists, and is called guardian, I told in the first post that imo is overpowered and is good doing everything, but I find it so boring that I deleted the character to have a empty slot for a fun one.If guardian can be good at everywhere why not other professions are tuned to be equally balanced?The overall feeling is Guardian is the favourite Anet dev's class, they love it, and in the other hand they dislike mesmer and thief .

I really don't get this ... how do you expect Anet to cater to your specific desires? That's not how any MMO works ... or anything that is a service for that matter. You got options ... you make the choices that most closely align to what you want. If it's not exact, that's not the problem with the service. Why not other professions tuned to be equally balanced? The only group that an answer that is Anet ... but if that's a barrier to you to enjoy the game, it's a signal you aren't of the right mind to play it because that state of the game has NEVER existed and there isn't a reason for it to exist.

[Asum.4960]

@frareanselm.1925 said:Before that I always compalined about how the new specs were overpowered respect to core. I struggled so much in pvp that i could only beat newbies. in PVE I only felt > powerful with power guardian and vanilla condi necro .I arrived late because I bought the game after the BIG NERF, and I couldnt enjoy the golden age.I tested all professions for weeks. I've "wasted" 3 months leveling up 5 characters and playing with them.I was right in the past, Dragonhunter, Firebrand, Holosmith and Reaper are ridiculously overpowered. If fact I find FB super boring, but I had to make one because the DPS > was excessive and I didnt wanted to miss it.

Concerning PvP Core Condi Necro is actually quite a bit superior to Reaper, and while FB and DH are great, core Guard can more than hold it's own as well.

@frareanselm.1925 said:The case of the weaver is another chapter, because you have to be a "phenom talent" to play well this class and the skill of a chinese pianist, to do the same damage than a Reaper smashing random buttons.

Weaver does about 40k DPS, while Reaper barely breaks the 30k, and that isn't with button mashing either.

@frareanselm.1925 said:The disbalance is terrible, and more noticeable in PvP. Mirage has the same DPS like a ranger pet.Even condis are disbalanced, Burn is OP while torment is a joke.All the time I tried to find a funny build/class combo, but the fun ones are nerfed.

Mirage due to it's design was incredibly oppressive and anti fun to play against, that said, even after massive nerfs, it's not like it's completely unuseable and while rare, still sees play even at the highest level.Ranger pets are kind of broken though, especially with how much they deny kiting LoS.

Don't really agree with your assessment of condition imbalance either. Burn can be incredibly bursty, but is usually fairly hardcountered by cleanses as most specs applying it in an oppressive amount (namely Guardian) have little to non in the way of cover conditions, while Torment and Confusion are usually found in more diverse application builds and harder to get rid off.

@frareanselm.1925 said:After trying all the good builds from metab and snowcrows, never felt powerful enough. My general feeling about the game is of FRUSTRATION.If you have to go full offensive stats to make good damage and have 11k HP stressed for your life all the time its not a casual friendly game.

So those Elite Specs are both incredibly OP but also not powerful enough? Maybe skill is the bigger issue, as GW2 is a heavily skill based game, your effectiveness will rely mostly on that, as well as understanding those builds to get the most out of them.

@frareanselm.1925 said:The meta builds, being so stressful to play, as hard to master than playing a music instrument, dont reward with the right DPS.

This is how I feel, powerless and frustrated.

Those Meta Builds are meant for organised group content, for them to be supported by support specs - in which case they indeed are rewarding to play in the DPS department.For other content, self-relying/buffing builds/tweaked versions of the meta ideas perform vastly better on their own.The golden rule for Open World builds is Does your build self-generate at least ~25 might, 100% Crit chance, and 25 Vulnerability? If not it's probably fairly bad.After that's taken care of you can look for powerful additions and QoL like Quickness, AoE's, pulls/disables and sustain.

@frareanselm.1925 said:If guardian can be good at everywhere why not other professions are tuned to be equally balanced?The overall feeling is Guardian is the favourite Anet dev's class, they love it, and in the other hand they dislike mesmer and thief .

I think it's pretty known that Mesmer is Anet's golden child, although you may have come at a bad time there since it's going through a difficult time right now after being so utterly broken that it kind of ruined the game across all game modes, from destroying the PvP scene as bunker Chrono and Condi Mirage, to the invalidation all other support specs in PvE for years and years making the game stale and boring, as well as being an absolute pain in WvW with things like condi Mirage or Shatter Chrono/Mirage oneshotting everybody daring to roam out of stealth.

Guardian has a good time right now, that is true (although it already saw some imo partially unjustified nerfs with DH recently), but it's not like it can do anything at any time and is OP, it's just really well balanced and can be adapted to cover a multitude of roles, something which indeed should be a Goal for Anet to work towards for other professions as well, rather than trying to take that away from Guardian.But it is what it is, finding the right balance for everything is far easier said than done, but at least it's been going into a better direction than in the past.

[Algreg.3629]

your expectations surpass your ability. Something we all encounter in life sooner or later :)