So I was having a thought today about balanced hero team builds. I don't know about other people but it gets boring after awhile just hiding behind your Necro, Mesmer, and Ritualist heroes. Does anyone even do balanced teams anymore? When I mean balanced I mean using warriors, ele's, monks etc! I believe it's time to dust off your Dunkoro and Koss and have some fun like the good old days!
I understand that balanced teams may not be meta like Discordway or Sabway. But not everything in this game is about breezing through it. I challenge people to come up with some pure balanced way teams. I would love to hear what you all would think could work.
Happy Wintersday everyone!
Balanced 7 Hero Team Builds
Sir K E V
Denar
Balanced does not mean purposefully crippling your team by taking underpowered hero professions.
Balanced means that, across all 7 heroes, there is moderate healing, defense, utility, support, control and offense. This is why most 7 hero builds use a lot of mesmers, necros and ritualists, because they can provide lots of this easily (shutdown, armor-ignoring damage, spiritwalls, minionwalls, lots of energy for healing etc etc), allowing bar compression.
Taking a war or ranger makes it unbalanced (specifically, weak).
EDIT: It is also scary that people still refer to discordway and sabway as the "meta" for 7H builds. They were good because of the 3H limitations. Now they are awful. this should be meta.
Balanced means that, across all 7 heroes, there is moderate healing, defense, utility, support, control and offense. This is why most 7 hero builds use a lot of mesmers, necros and ritualists, because they can provide lots of this easily (shutdown, armor-ignoring damage, spiritwalls, minionwalls, lots of energy for healing etc etc), allowing bar compression.
Taking a war or ranger makes it unbalanced (specifically, weak).
EDIT: It is also scary that people still refer to discordway and sabway as the "meta" for 7H builds. They were good because of the 3H limitations. Now they are awful. this should be meta.
ultimak719
I would just like to point out that discordway and sabway, now because of the 7H party did not suddenly become awful. They still work and are still very efficient, especially for the tough, limited party vanqs like minister cho's. It is simply that there are better options for full 7H teams, just like that there are better options than the "balanced". Certainly it will work, it just won't be as efficient.
Outerworld
It's difficult to really define "balanced" for PvE since almost everything is imbalanced in one form or another.
Sagittario
I'm currently using something that reminds balanced team. There are:
1 SoS
2 WS derv, tank
3 minion bomber, commander
4 panic mes with rupts
5 inept mes with anti-psych skills
6 invoker, commander
7 healing burst monk with mimicry
8 UA hybrid
However for small areas (4-6) I still prefer discord.
If you want, I'll ping you the builds as soon as I get home.
1 SoS
2 WS derv, tank
3 minion bomber, commander
4 panic mes with rupts
5 inept mes with anti-psych skills
6 invoker, commander
7 healing burst monk with mimicry
8 UA hybrid
However for small areas (4-6) I still prefer discord.
If you want, I'll ping you the builds as soon as I get home.
Denar
Then we'll have to agree to disagree. Balanced means that the end result of the build is that it is versatile. It does not mean inherently taking lots of different professions - though I would agree that in PvP this is what tends to happen.
However, in PvE, and when talking about heroes, a balanced build would not use warrior heroes as "tanks" or monk heroes as dedicated healers. Simply because either those roles are obsolete and unusable by the hero AI, or because other professions are simply better and bring more to the table (i.e. a necro dedicated healer is far more versatile than a monk, when any skills that may be lacking - prot, hex removal - can be spread amongst the rest of the party).
To give an example, the 7H build I linked to earlier would be balanced. Would you disagree? This would be an example of a build that is not so balanced - whereas with 7H Player Support you can generally c-space through everything - this requires a different playstyle entirely; if you muck up the pulling and balling required, the team will not be able to deal with any aggro on the backline as well.
And saying "lolPvEiseasy" is not justification for arguing useless hero professions are as effective as others.
However, in PvE, and when talking about heroes, a balanced build would not use warrior heroes as "tanks" or monk heroes as dedicated healers. Simply because either those roles are obsolete and unusable by the hero AI, or because other professions are simply better and bring more to the table (i.e. a necro dedicated healer is far more versatile than a monk, when any skills that may be lacking - prot, hex removal - can be spread amongst the rest of the party).
To give an example, the 7H build I linked to earlier would be balanced. Would you disagree? This would be an example of a build that is not so balanced - whereas with 7H Player Support you can generally c-space through everything - this requires a different playstyle entirely; if you muck up the pulling and balling required, the team will not be able to deal with any aggro on the backline as well.
And saying "lolPvEiseasy" is not justification for arguing useless hero professions are as effective as others.
Lanier
Quote:
Originally Posted by Denar
Quaker
I use a 7-hero team based upon Mercenaries. The Mercenaries are based upon my active characters, not insta-PvP Mercs. So, my 7-hero team consists of me, me, me. 
I don't give a rat's ass about whether it's 'balanced' or not - it works just fine for everything except some high-end HM DoA stuff and I have fun.
At the moment, the team consists of:
2 Rangers - 1 BHA/interrupt/volley, one splinter/volley
2 monks - 1 HB, 1 prot/resto
1 MM
1 SoS Rit
1 Mesmer
1 Ele (air)
With me filling whatever role my character is, and the rest heroes. Except, when I play my Necro, I play as an SS and let Livia do the MM, and when I play some character who's not on the list (I have toons of every class), I substitute as appropriate. Sometimes, the hero's builds are tweaked according to the situation, or I will change the team setup for specific areas, but generally speaking it works 99% of the time.
Every one has their own approach to the game, but for me, I'm not interested in optimizing things to do things as fast as possible or with as little effort as possible. I mostly want to enjoy myself.
I don't give a rat's ass about whether it's 'balanced' or not - it works just fine for everything except some high-end HM DoA stuff and I have fun.
At the moment, the team consists of:
2 Rangers - 1 BHA/interrupt/volley, one splinter/volley
2 monks - 1 HB, 1 prot/resto
1 MM
1 SoS Rit
1 Mesmer
1 Ele (air)
With me filling whatever role my character is, and the rest heroes. Except, when I play my Necro, I play as an SS and let Livia do the MM, and when I play some character who's not on the list (I have toons of every class), I substitute as appropriate. Sometimes, the hero's builds are tweaked according to the situation, or I will change the team setup for specific areas, but generally speaking it works 99% of the time.
Every one has their own approach to the game, but for me, I'm not interested in optimizing things to do things as fast as possible or with as little effort as possible. I mostly want to enjoy myself.
Denar
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanier
Quote: Originally Posted by Lanier
It may not be balanced, but with the current imbalanced state of PvE skills, its a lot better than a balanced build would be.
Oh wait, no! Now "balanced" means how powerful skills are relative to each other.Quote: Originally Posted by Lanier
Also, you might want to read my last post. I never said that non-monks, rits, necros, and mesmers were as effective as others.
Quote:
Silly Denar, there are multiple definitions of balance. The power of skills relative to each other is skill balance. This is what anet does (or fails to do) when they release skill updates. A balanced team build is completely different than balance among skills.|
Originally Posted by Lanier
Oh wait, no! Now "balanced" means how powerful skills are relative to each other.
|
Quote:
Contradiction much? And that's in two posts -.-Also a bit rich, you telling me to read your last post again. I made the point that having a balanced team build means it has the capacity to be able to adapt to most situations - by having the shutdown, offense, defense etc etc I listed. Is that wrong? Should I really throw in an Earthshaker War instead of an SoGM rit or Illusion Mesmer (losing a LOT of defense and offense)? How would that make it any more balanced?
Why is it that 7 caster heroes can't be balanced? What are they lacking? Yes, yes, I know what balanced is in your opinion. I did read your two previous posts.
And wait... what? When did I ever say that bringing a warrior was superior to bringing a SoGM or Illusion mesmer. It might result in a more balanced team, but it wouldn't result in a better team.
