Remember the game is called Guild Wars not Cookie-Cutter wars

I was in Random arenas yesterday with a build I designed myself: a Warrior/Ranger with a pet that uses Poisonous Bite. I found this build very effective, and won 16 times in a row using this build. My team members were complementing me a lot for my ability to harass enemy monks using bleeding and poison for -7 Health degen.

So here it goes: after we were defeated on the 17th match, my team was transported to Team Arenas. One of my team members was a cookie-cutter SS Necro, and he was asking what build the other team members were using. The monk said "I am a Boon Protect", and the necro was cool with it (Boon Prot = Cookie Cutter). The Mesmer on my team said "I'm a Migraner" and the Necro was cool with it (Migrainer = Cookie Cutter). Then I said "I am a Poison/Bleeding warrior with a pet". When the Necro found out I did not use a cookie-cutter build, he went BESERK, he said "OMG u n00b u sux so so bad!!" and left the game. Well if my character build was so "noobish", why did we win 16 times in a row and why were my team members (including the necro himself) complementing me for my good degen damage? Notice he liked my build until he found out it was not cookie cutter.

I do not appreciate people who can *only* use builds that everybody else uses, such as that SS Necro. I bet all that Necro ever does is go into observer mode to look at other people's builds. He simply cannot design anything himself. My point is this: If you are somebody who cannot design builds for yourself, that is okay, but do not flame people who *do* design things for themselves. I always have faith in people who design their own builds, and I have been succesful in teams even when nobody uses cookie-cutter.

Please, learn something from this and do not be like that silly SS necro who goes nuts if people do not use a cookie-cutter build. Thank you

You see that in PvE too. True and tried, cookie cutter builds are the safest way to go.

Typically you see... 2 Warrriors, 2 Monks, Minion Master, Nuker (or two), and filler.

you won 16 in a row or whatever because your TEAM was doing well not because of your oh so amazing 'one of a kind' *cough seen it before* build. and whos to say the necro hasnt modified his ss build so it isnt 'cookie cutter'. you seem very suited to pvp.

Question: Why do people only play cookie-cutter builds and call those that don't use them noobs?
Simple answer:
People are idiots.

Don't get too worried about it... there are hundreds of skills for a reason.

I did not say that my build was the #1 prime reason that we won 16 times in a row. And I never said my build was "oh so AMAZING", I just said it was effective, thats all. Stop exaggerating.

And yes, I make up 25% of of my team so I did influence how the team went.

So you have seen a build similar to mine? That's good, it is nice to see people designing new things. And as for the SS Necro, he used Arcane Echo + Spiteful Spirit, which is VERY typical. Do not try to tell me that is not cookie-cutter.

I leave groups that won't take an assassin. As a monk, they usually bend to my "demand". Sure, its abusing my position, but as an assassin myself, I won't tolerate the hate.

Two MM teams with missions that have plenty of corpses are insanely powerful. 2 War, 2 Monk, 2 Nec(MM or SS), Ele, Ritualist.
Poor mesmers/assassins/rangers

When I lead groups, I usually take the first people to invite themselves... think the only mission we lost the entire time was one of the ascension missions and Hell's Precipe.

Let people play, copy, imitate whatever they want. The originality you try to emphasize throughout your posting is none at all. Never moan about the intention behind using a specific build. A game is meant to be fun so people try to enjoy it in the way they believe it suits them best. As long as it's no broken mechanic or an exploit they make use of, it's never a bad thing.

People like that Necro just exist, from the lowest ranks to the highest. It's just there and the best thing is to ignore these people and let them live in their pityful illusion.

When on earth did "cookie-cutter" and "efficient" become synonymous?

My brother LOVES his necro and he loves running blood spike... But anytime we doing anything in pve he is wanted to play it as MM or SS - this kinda bugs him... We RARELY ask him to bring his warrior or any of his other 8characters (2accts)...

I don't mind an assassin personally if they know what they are doing... there is still about 60-75% that still have no clue. I dont claim to be the best assassin but I make sure to take a self heal and I pop it every time it recharges if I am playing tank. A friend of mine... -_- He's very rash in his Sin playing... He tanks and cannot keep himself up.

I typically play a ranger, and thankfully my husband is a monk, so I don't have issues getting a group when I go with him. I am a decent ranger, by my own rights and I have a decent necro too, I just wish I could sit down with her to figure out some new builds.

I hate cookie cutter builds but if in general the group asks for it I will run it. I think the best necro build I ran was a hex build... I had SS, Faintheartedness, soul barbs and some other stuff... Poor warrior would come in to kill me, I would spam hexes on him, he would take two swings and run away lol. It was funny! My husband generally allows people to run whatever they want, if it goes bad we tweak, and most times after 2rounds of tweaking it almost becomes cookie cutter, but it works ya know?

We do at least try different builds and such. You build isn't new, I too have seen in before and with a full team of warriors as beast masters its pretty nasty! Good luck, there is nothing wrong with trying new builds... People didn't come up with the cookie cutter builds without trying different things! Some people just aren't smart enough to realize that.

Well new builds come up once in a while and all cookie cutter builds must come from somewhere..

i love people that play cookie cutter builds, they are the easiest to beat

A classic example of people who refuse to think for themselves. Obviously they find the brain work, if it could be called that, too taxing to make a build themselves, so they trawl through forums such as these and copy, rinse, and repeat.

Someone actually left my Guild when I trounced his cookie-cutter Warrior tank build in a 1 v 1 scrim. Called me a 'noob' becaue I came up with my own Warrior build. His loss.

For PvE, only A-Net can move the metagame, so let's hope we get more quests/missions with mobs that don't leave corpses

But for PvP, players can dictate FotM builds by making counters. If you're tired of people running the same builds, make something the can counter them, and tell people about it, and thus the metagame moves on.

Now that I've explained what Meta-Game means...

Yeah that necro was stupid.

This problem arises in nearly every game. What people want are effective builds, and let's be honest, cookie-cutter builds ARE effective. I'm not saying they aren't more effective builds in existance, but simply put, cookie-cutter builds work well.

Part of the problem is the masses do not support "different" builds. You see people spamming "GLF MM necro, SS necro". Well, if you are a necromancer, it can be hard to get in a group if you claim you are something other than an MM or SS necro.

Well the OP called a Boonprot build a cookie-cutter, and those are run..well..
everywhere. (for a reason)

It doesn't really matter to me what people are using typically, but I've never really seen any of the aforementioned "build bashing". For farming, I have never felt like finding new places to farm, or thinking of builds myself, so in that sense I do use "cookie cutter" builds. For PvP, I usually take an existing build and change it..my first time trying to run a monk, I had no idea what I was doing..("Whats Energy Management?") Take from all that what you will...I'm just glad no one noticed me using Balanced Stance in THK. <.<

Heck I find it amusing when people are willing to take my crappy MM skills over someone who might possibly have an excellent build.

The reason the cut back on the amount of corpses we could exploit was because had they not we really would have been running through all zones with about 6million minions in our wake. I play ranger so often that when I do MM, suddenly I have my 10minions and the next thing I know I have none and few corpses left to make something of.... >_> I forget I am an MM really easily

Well the reason people only take cookie cutter builds most of the time because even though there are a lot of non-cookie cutter good builds out there, there are more bad non-cookie cutter builds. (i.e I'M AN MM W/N!, NOTHING CAN STOP MY MENDING WARRIOR!, I'm a Me/W....SPELL SLASHER!!, Ha Ha I'm a KD/AS....E/W!!! FC ECHO MENDING FTW!)

And if they would use their brain and seperate these good builds from the bad they might screw up because they brain has been fried from work/shcool.

Omfg, OP, why weren't you running Eviscerate/TF build!

Guys there is a REASON you see these builds everywhere.

it is because they work

My favorite build is Necro-Assain, using deadly arts and blood spells to drain, poison and knock down foes w/ 2 sigs to keep attackign even after mana is gone Amazingly it works well

When I play PvE though, I see myself switching to MM to be able to get into groups... that or just saying Im an SS and using the build I mentioned.... hehehe its not like anyone ever notices

~prime