Which suboptimal but fun choices have you made in your build?

[Aodlop.1907]

What the title says.

[Dante.1763]

My thief uses Mistfire Wolf in her daredevil build(open world) >.>

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Playing necro for the whole lifespan of the game.

[Rogue.8235]

Elite transformations on my Norn characters.  I use the form of the spirit I chose for them on character creation.

 

Charr thief uses hidden pistol racial skill just for the flavor.

 

My elementalists are all built around the element I chose for them on character creation.  My main ele is earth so every build I use on her revolves around earth skills, earth utilities, and the earth traitline.

 

My main necromancer hates the smell of undead minions, so I never use them on that character.  I'm thinking this isn't suboptimal, though.

 

My Asura warrior is named Kinetomancer Reqq.  As such, he only uses skills that transfer momentum to the enemy which are knock downs , knock backs, and the like.  This is how he wrecks things.

 

My sylvari mesmer uses only confusion based skills and attacks because she's botanically hallucinogenic like that.

 

I love what male Charr say (and how they say it) when they get fury.  My male charr characters all use builds based on getting fury.

 

My Norn Revenant idolizes dwarves, so his build is based on the retribution traitline and uses hammer and dwarf utilities.

 

My Norn ranger is based on Mielikki, so I try to use as many bear themed things as I can.

 

Every one of my 21 characters has a theme that I not only build for but play as, too.  It's usually suboptimal but makes the game fun.  

PvP and WvW are different in that I actually use cohesive builds based on game mechanics and my gaming style in competitive environments.

[Trebuidoi.4701]

I run a stunbreak in PvE sometimes... (／≧ω＼)

[AliamRationem.5172]

3 hours ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

What the title says.

 

I play celestial sword weaver with fire/arcane.  It isn't the best damage and it requires more dodging and combo field interactions than other options.  However, it's still decent and I really enjoy the busy playstyle.  Conceptually, I like running all stat gear on ele.

[notebene.3190]

I know some folks who have a few characters with Traveler's Runes. I don't mean me, just some folks. 

[AXLIB.8425]

heal mesmer with well

 

[Aodlop.1907]

9 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I play celestial sword weaver with fire/arcane.

I don't PvE much, so I just mindlessly copy-passed my PvP build on my weaver. It's fire/arcane as well, but I picked Viper stats instead. Is it actually bad in PvE?

[Grand Marshal.4098]

Sometimes I run Kick instead of Bull's charge for roaming. 

 

Living life to the edge ik

[AliamRationem.5172]

3 hours ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

I don't PvE much, so I just mindlessly copy-passed my PvP build on my weaver. It's fire/arcane as well, but I picked Viper stats instead. Is it actually bad in PvE?

 

Not at all, but fire/arcane celestial is more commonly used for WvW.  PvE condi weaver usually runs fire/earth with viper or trailblazer.

[Esorono.1039]

I use Earth elementals every time I fight because I am too lazy to use my one brain cell to live when I can just use a practically immortal meat shield to take the hits for me. I also like staff because I like the utility and range of it. It's a questionable build, but at the same time I rarely die, or even have to think about what I am doing more than 'hide behind the Earth elemental and press buttons'.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

I play warrior.

[SeTect.5918]

18 hours ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

What the title says.

I run a strange Fire+Water, condition remove on regeneration build in wvw on my weaver, i like it the most, it does pretty good. 

[Jijimuge.4675]

I still play one of my elementalists (the first one I made - an asura) as a staff weaver in PvE - I just like the flavour of it.  Also. for flavour reasons, runes of the Golemancer are welded to that character, so he's a tiny and rather techy elemental mage with a (somewhat) trusty golem companion.

 

He wears a combination of cultural and aetherblade armour, so it all has a theme that hangs together for me, even if he's one of my less effective characters on the whole.  If Ele gets a suitably techy weapon (perhaps pistol or rifle) in EoD I might move him across to that, however.

[Aleksander Suburb.4287]

Playing Ranger with 2 daggers and shortbow. Feeling nearly like a thief instead of a clunky Ranger. High survivability and cc but weak dps. 😋

[Aodlop.1907]

5 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

I run a strange Fire+Water, condition remove on regeneration build in wvw on my weaver, i like it the most, it does pretty good. 

I've tried it too but losing the fast atunement switch from arcane is too big, it slows down gameplay too much for me.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

For PVE:

 

I take Arcane Shield and Master's Fortitude on Weaver.

I take Channeled Vigor and Staff Master on Daredevil.

I take "Your Soul is Mine", "You Are All Weaklings," "Chilled to the Bone," and Augury of Death on Reaper.

 

[Goettel.4389]

My tempest is still not using a second weapon set, I just like staff too much.

[Verdict is Vengence.6912]

I built an asura warrior around [Kill Shot]. A sniper warrior.

 

All berserker gear with scholar runes along with ferocity in food/utility + ferocity stacking sigil. All damage traits picked including 100 percent crit chance burst.

 

I do this just to one shot people with small hp pools or those who are complete glass. No one can see my asura warrior kneeling down to [Kill Shot] people because he's too small and everyone is zoomed out to the sky with their camera zooms. With unblockable signet of power activation, no one can aegis it or block it on accident.

 

It's so kitten fun and funny one shotting people, especially during no downed state events in WvW. I used to worry about meta builds. Now, I just like messing around with gimmicks like sniper warrior and [Kill Shot], all poison utilities condition thief, Bomb engi, etc.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

6 hours ago, Verdict is Vengence.6912 said:

I built an asura warrior around [Kill Shot]. A sniper warrior.

 

All berserker gear with scholar runes along with ferocity in food/utility + ferocity stacking sigil. All damage traits picked including 100 percent crit chance burst.

 

I do this just to one shot people with small hp pools or those who are complete glass. No one can see my asura warrior kneeling down to [Kill Shot] people because he's too small and everyone is zoomed out to the sky with their camera zooms. With unblockable signet of power activation, no one can aegis it or block it on accident.

 

It's so kitten fun and funny one shotting people, especially during no downed state events in WvW. I used to worry about meta builds. Now, I just like messing around with gimmicks like sniper warrior and [Kill Shot], all poison utilities condition thief, Bomb engi, etc.

Big fax

 

Like, I once thought that meta or near meta was the way to go for optimal performance. 

 

I figured out that extreme non-metal is 10 times more fun. 

 

These days i play with a full Zerker core engi with toolkit, rifle, ram and elixir x, pulling people, using interrupts, launching them and turning them into moas. 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Back again.

 

Something else I've started doing is just running marauder sets in PVE.  I spent a lot of time and effort getting an ascended marauder set on each of my toons... only for it all to be rendered obsolete by legendary armor.  But, I put +5 power WvW infusions on each of them.  I ran the math, and the damage loss isn't much at all.  Comparing full berserker with vanilla agony infusions to full marauder with +70 power from infusions, the damage loss is only around 5%.  Circumstances are a factor and all that (which actually leads to almost no difference on weaver), but with damage variance being 10% I'm functionally the same as an infusion-less berserker set.  

[SkyCake.4216]

The Celesital Core Engineer / Sometimes Scrapper build I've been running is pretty awful. Kind of feels like "old-school engi" though and I've been enjoying it. Even swap in a turret occasionally. That's how you know it's bad. 

Edited August 3, 2021 by SkyCakeLight.3750

[Stavros.8249]

1) On Daredevil I don't use the dodge trait, I use the staff master and use dodge only to avoid attacks. 

2) On mirage I don't use shatters at all. I spawn 3 clones and attack/ambuses with them with conditions. 

Both lazy gameplay and for pve. 

[Kyniel.4706]

So many - but the main one is probably using conjure earth shield on my asura ele - kinda inspired by the floating islands you see in asura territory. Would love there to be a viable Earth/Air build but just doesn't work 😞