A lot is going on in Guild Wars 2, and it can be hard to keep track of.
The latest class balance update has fundamentally changed a whole slew of classes, and with a new expansion, Secrets of the Obscure, on the horizon, times are a bit…tumultuous, to say the least.
The first big issue with the current state of the game is the current class balance. Now, the balance is actually pretty good. The DPS classes are, for the most part, doing very well. There are more offensive supports to choose from, and almost every class has an elite specialization that can either provide Quickness or Alacrity. There’s truly not much wrong in the department of damage or boon providers.
The issue is that not many of these builds feel good to play, and quite frankly, not too many people even asked for a lot of the changes that went through.
One of the biggest issues with Guild Wars 2 is the sheer amount of bloat when it comes to builds and roles. There are so many ways to enjoy a class, build, encounter, or content. The world is truly your oyster these days. This is a good thing. The problem lies when fundamental changes happen too frequently, or too harshly. I feel that this is what’s happening right now. The biggest example of this is Scourge. Now, it’s no secret that Scourge fundamentally is a broken class. It isn’t necessarily the “best” class or the most “optimal” class, no.
However, it’s the only class that simply does not play by any of the rules that are set out for other classes. It’s been that way for quite a long time, but I don’t think that it was too much of an outlier. The perception of it certainly wasn’t there either, as aside from specifically Boneskinner, Heal Scourge in particular wasn’t seeing too much play to my knowledge. It is good in comps that already have two offensive supports, but most PUGs don’t bother with that, even if it may be better in some cases. This was all thrown out the window when Scourge was made into an Alacrity provider.
Instead of being this hard carry class, it is now a boon support just like everyone else. Not only did no one ask for this, but it’s also such a drastic and radical change that many players may just not play the class anymore. This sets the precedent that outliers that don’t fit neatly into the, rather ironically, loose class roles that Guild Wars 2 haphazardly puts together, shouldn’t exist, and that’s a bummer. If a build isn’t really hurting balance, and it provides something unique and interesting to a meta, it can stand to exist until a truly egregious problem arises. The potential of it being a problem is not the same as having already done harm, and I think caution should be taken when drastic changes are made to builds. Alacrity Bladesworn is another, albeit lesser problem.
The issue with Warriors providing quickness before was how clunky banners were, and to a lesser extent, how much they took away from many Warriors’ rotations. This, along with the Ranger spirit changes, almost feels like they gave up on that, and just slapped Quickness on to Berserker. It’s fine to drop a mechanic if it’s just not working design wise, and it’s also pretty clear that they don’t want quickness or alacrity on core class skills.
The new issue is how Warrior players who wanted to provide quickness, now have to play Berserker. I don’t really like forcing players into a specific spec if it doesn’t require it, and previously, a lot of elite specializations’ boons were tied into their mechanics. Just because classes will no longer need to have their agency taken away when providing boons, doesn’t mean our agency should also be taken away with class choice.
The counter argument to this is easy: Just build another class that gives the boons you want to provide. While players like me, who have every class, won’t have a problem with that, not everyone can, or will want to do that. It’s a tough situation that I don’t quite know the solution to, and while I’m very certain that we haven’t seen the last of the balance changes leading into Secrets of the Obscure, and along with it, weapon masteries, I truly hope that the sense of agency is brought back to the players in a more elegant way.
