Complain or learn to counter?

Examples of some of the comments I’ve received this last week:

‘Noob’, (from the unimaginative ones)
‘Learn to play the game’
‘Stop abusing the game’

Why?

As I’ve finished the game with my new Factions Monk and Ranger I have taken to trying different builds in RA. I stumbled across a thread about Touch Rangers on these forums and decided to give it a go.

My question being, is any build a valid one? When in HA I/my guild try to adapt our tactics to suit the opposition build and I have never complained, on forums or in game, concerning an individuals/teams build, (even IWAY).

My view is that if the skills go in the skill bar, and it works, then it is a valid build and good luck to those that use it. Those who wish not to, then learn to counter it and stop complaining.

It’s amusing that the comments are from the opposing side and never my fellow team members!

The novelty of the Touch Ranger in RA is starting to wear a bit thin after a week so shortly I will be returning my monk, who, no doubt will meet many a touch ranger.

As a monk I mostly fear Mesmer’s, so I may well start a campaign to have them banned from the game

Seems like a bit of flamebait here. I mean, the obvious answer to the question would be "Learn to counter". However, how do imbalances get airtime and ultimately get addressed by the developers? From people who "complain".

In this case, the word "complain" could be synonymous with "evaluate the need for balancing of a skill combo".

Labeling anyone who mentions evaluating the need for possible balancing of a skill combo as a "complainer" won't win you many friends, and may encourage some pretty nasty responses.

In the recent Gaile chat, someone asked about touch rangers and mentioned there were plenty of counters but she was going to ask the developers about it but didn't think it needed a change personally.

What is a proven fact. If everyone starts doing the same that it gets loopsided (such as Iway) Anet will "shake" things up if any FOTM lasts too long. No matter if it's "too easy" or a way or two to counter it, took no skill, did take skill, etc.

That is certainly not my intention and I have used the aforementioned build purely as an example and not as a specific talking point, but wish to hear comments regarding the validity of ‘any’ build.

The big thing for Anet is to keep guildwars from becoming stale. If another FOTM comes up and previous dies down they don't make changes.

Now if something "stays" too long, they middle with skills / equipment to force a change. No matter how much skill, lack of skill, etc.

It also appears they don't want to middle unless they have to, in hopes that there will be a change/shift in the FOTM.

Of courst there are counters, I just think people get upset when:

-They have to change their skillbars
-They have to change to stop one build, and the skill they need to take will have limited use/be useless against any other build.

Although, things like touch rangers were bound to pop up when A-Net decided to create duplicate skills.

its just an annoying build nothing less, nothing more.. in my opinion its not effective, hence, I dont like having a toucher in my team..

as youve already noticed, try to ignore the comments, it only spoils the fun.. i had some warrior bitch at our team becoz he was blinded for like a 10 minute fight (enemy team was a mes, 2 monks and that warrior). we decided to quit (it really was 9-10 mins up to that point..) and he cursed at us, bitched at the ele, then told us to "go get some skill and stop noobing"

ignore that stuff

Touch rangers were in the game before factions, factions just allowed the build to be modified so that a sacrifice skill wasn't there anymore.

Psychic Distraction

I sincerely believe any build is valid because any build can be defeated.

It really is that simple, touch rangers can be defeated but if players are either too lazy or too incompetent to learn how then I say "Go Touch Rangers", if you cannot in PvP learn to adapt to new builds you shouldnt be playing it, go play CS or something then.

Heh, we had a battle like that once, we lasted each other out for 16 minutes without anyone dying and it became quite obvious no one was ever going to win. The other team decided to be gracious, said GG and bowed out.

For the life of me, I cannot fathom why people have to show such little respect for each other. These guys where our equals and nobody was going to win so why go around calling ppl 'noob' or hurl abuse then?

Ignore it or report it, my feelings exactly.

Wild Blow, Black Out...

People need to actually look into what skills AssTouching Rangers use and find a counter. With the above, you make them vulnerable to hit by breaking their stance and you stop them from from stealing more life.

You also need to realize that you are in a TEAM and need to coordinate your efforts to take these guys out. If you try to take these guys on solo up close without a counter, you will lose.

When you can get a RA game where there are seven touch rangers it's getting stupid.

Yes you can counter them, but in a tight RA bar allready being forced to take another two skills to counter touch rangers is stupid. It's not random arenas, it's touch ranger arena at the moment.

its just that so many people are vry narrow minded.

they think th only way is IWAY

Well isn't that generally how you win? Beat them by being better at the metagame or running a counter to the metagame. :P

Well since so many of you are telling us to counter touch rangers, then what should we do to counter them?

Moving, Snaring, Learning to play, etc etc

All of the above can easily kill a touch ranger since one has to "touch" you to do any damage.

Seems pretty relevant to this topic, so... ;p

I feel less strongly about Touchers than I do about IWAY because it's harder to pull off. My whole beef with IWAY isn't the build (which is pretty strong if you're not used to PvP) but rather the people running it and only it and not experimenting with new things. I think that's where a good deal of the loudest complainers come from.

I've seen people who make outrageous claims to faime, and watch them do amazingly stupid things over and over again. Then they scream at the other players there because it can't possibly be the fault of the one that walked into the middle of 4 ViM trappers and stayed there.

I've met people in my life that believe that game developers are perfect people. Ones that know their code so well, they program in little "loopholes" for enterprising players to take advantage of, giving them an edge. Then, when the developers close these loopholes, these players find that their little trick doesn't work the same anymore, so they scream "Nerf", because obviously they've removed content from the game (even though that "content" wasn't supposed to be there in the first place). These are the ones that, in my opinion at least, are the first and loudest complainers when things get fixed, and are the slowest to do anything about it. These are also the same people that whine and scream in-game about "nerfs" and refuse to aknowledge when another player says "So what? Deal with it". Even elementalists have dealt with quite possibly the most cripling game update to date, the DoT/AoE AI change.

If Touchers are truely unbalanced, then A.Net will adjust the skills a little bit to make them not quite as effective, then while those that had to fight against them breathe a sigh of relief, the unimaginative ones that were using it to farm mass factions will have a collective cry of "Y U NERF ANERF?!"

So, I guess my point is "People are stupid". [/rant]

I think just about any build that has a brain behind it that is difficult to run is excellent. Learn to Counter!

Not everything should be nerfed because people don't know how to adapt. Heck I HATE Iway and thats cause every Tom Mo and Jerry can run the build to farm faction and fame... It made honest fame and glory farmers... pointless.... I personally think it is stupid and over powered in some instances. However we learned to counter or at least play against it defensively... Unfortunately we never ran into an IWAY group while running that certain build but it did get us all the way to Halls (no we didn't take it, so close tho ).

I know some skills are just obscene and need some balancing and I understand why for Factions they nerfed MMs... OMG I COULD HAVE AN ARMY OF 200!!! (Silly to me that the mobs are that large tho lol)
The bonder builds I see in HoH, cute!, but not very stable. Necro spikes, nasty if done right but really slow to get moving. EoE.... OW but amazing!

If it works for you, then run it! If someone can't come up with a way to counter it then why are they doing any type of pvp at all?
Thats just my opinion take it for what its worth.