Hey all, I used to play GW a year ago. Started just a bit after release.

Now 2 years ago I could do this, and yes I know it's incredibly stupid.

I could spec my Monk for smiting prayers.

I could give him some decent sword mastery.

I could equip him with a sword and shield.

I could fill his skill-bar with smiting enchantments and sword skills.

With that setup, I could find a group for FoW and after telling them my skills, items and build they would still take me along. Not as a healer, but just as a random.

Every group one guy would probarly whine about it for a little bit. 2 or 3 would then instantly tell him to shut it and let everyone play how they want to play.

1 year ago I stopped playing, why? I had to spec my monk this and that exact build. I had to have these and these exact attributes and I had to have these and these exact skills! They didn't want me, they just wanted a bot with human intelligence. But those hadn't been invented yet so I was the next best thing. Or sometimes my place as a monk even came after the hero bots.

Now I know the above example is slightly ridicilous, but it IS based on an actual scenario. I really did go into FoW in a real group as a sword fighting smiting monk, and yes I constantly had a 60% DP.

Now I know that for the dungeons in EotN the standard should be above a sword fighting smiting monk. I mean I didn't add anything usefull at all to my group. But is the standard still so high that there's a few <insert dungeon name here> builds and only those builds are run? Or can I as, say a mesmer, get a group in any dungeon in any group that has place for a non-tank and non-healer as long as I have a good build of my own making?

How's the current state of the game? Still only Barrage groups and War-Ele-Monk groups? Or has it changed so that all classes can easily get a group with all good builds in all dungeons?

Well, some people are like that, in every game.

In Vanguard, for example, there are four different healer classes. ALL of them are full featured main healers. There are many differences, but the skill and equipment of the player will always play a greater role than the class.

Yet there are still people who ask "for a Cleric" instead of just for a healer.

In GW it wasn't some people.

It was all people. And reading the forums on FW fansites shows me that it's still the case.

If I'm wrong please tell me :P. If I'm not I won't be restarting this game.

I have one things to say: Ursan

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Originally posted by Lydon
I have one things to say: Ursan

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The raw, sad, fucking truth is that's the only thing being ran. It's extremely easy to get together Ursanway and it's pretty much one of the best PvE teams currently. A few examples of different variation of Ursanway is Dervish Ursans or Frost Ursans however the most common version is this. There may be a few people trying to run different builds, but those usually stick to inviting friends or guldies; if what you're looking for is a PuG then you'll definitely be asked to play Ursanway.

ah well, that'll be no restarting GW for me.....

Anyway, thanks for the answers guys. Saved me some bucks buying EotN. Definatly not worth it then....

Well, I know it's not exactly answering what you asked, but I would suggest you think about trying EotN out.

In my opinion, the storyline in EotN is probably the best out of all the games.  If anything you are given Heroes to use (in case you didn't get Nightfall).

Yes, I understand that it's probably more "fun" to play with other people, but you'd be missing out on some of the best storyline that GW has.

I know that it's lame that all people want to do is use the "best" spec for doing certain things, but I don't really think you should let that affect you.  They've done alot of things to make it almost too easy to "solo" through the PvE content now IMO it's really worth it to experience EotN.

By the way, you can still find regular groups just doing the storyline content.  If you're trying to farm reputation or the underworld areas, then yea, you're stuck with having to have a preset build.  But by the time you get to that point you should have already finished up any true PvE content in the game.

A year ago people were taking sword monks into FoW?  I'm sorry but I wouldn't have taken a sword monk into... anything.  its just... horrible.

Any class I accept as long as they don't have an awful build.  a lot of people are like me in that respect.  all kinds of groups based on all kinds of builds, and then just completely random groups with 2 healers and a derv and a bunch of random people.  many of the EoTN missions I ran were with completely random people, no specific build, or just heroes.

you don't HAVE to have certain builds to get into groups.  But you do to get into groups that are based on those builds.  So unless you are willing to learn how to play a build well, don't expect to get into groups where other people know how to play builds well.

you can still get through most of the game, it'll just be slower and more painful.