damn "idiot proof" factor

You can spend weeks in optimizing and testing builds that theorecically are nearly perfect (as far you can tell) against all kinds of situations you build them against (or in general wich is the ultimative challenge with skills changing every month).

You also can test the characters and elements of these builds and test their strenght in practice. one character (or 2) of such a build ALWAYS owns PvE, the team arena and the random arena, even if its not designed against very small or very big teams.

And whenever you try to present such a build and try it you are cursed to fail, because most players just dont get it how your build works or players that know how to play them simply are not online at the same time or do not know how to play together because comunication is a big challenge in GW.


And than there are "idiot proof" builds; air spiking, Healing ball smiting, Elementarist smiting (gone for good), tainted flesh necromancers with 2 healing monks and one prot monk and the rest doesnt matter at all, energy draining, spirit spam, IWAY (can it be simpler?)...

All those builds are FAR from perfect (not half as powerfull as builds i already developed and tested partically) and their characterts and elements just SUCK compared to other builds you could play! However they just work all day long for one reason:

They are idiot proof.

You most times dont need ANY intelligence to win.
Practice and low IQ requirement seems to be superior to theory and planning comon sense.
Now why do idiot proof builds nowadays even beat optimized builds with players that know how to play them?
damn "idiot proof" factor, i underestimated you for too long!

Okay... what do you propose we do, then?

The so-called "idiot proof" builds don't defeat well made, well optimized builds that are run by teams with decent communication period. Of all the teams I've played with we have lost to IWAY maybe once, and that was with 2 of ours monks getting err=7ed. Air spike was a poor joke of a build, and tainted flesh is just silly (it has a lousy habit of blowing up in your face).

If you want to complain about the lack of skill, intelligence and communication skills the general population of Guild Wars has, well I would agree with you completely, but its the same with any MMORPG, learn to deal with it.

All in all if your so-called optimized build is being beaten by FoTM builds, you need to look at your teamates or your build, because one or the other or both clearly isn't "optimized" at all.

... and some people even rely on bullshit formulas, I've heard .....

Heh, Elitist pig garbage at its best. I'm no PVP expert by any means, but then I'm not going to go as far as some people do analyzing DPS or energy effiencies.... cause its a game... Either way, there's no such thing as an "idiot proof" build, even the easiest to play builds I can think of off the top of my head could totally be played wrong. Besides that, sometimes the simple proven build is the way to go. Look at NASA's latest project, its like the Apollo program on steroids, because its proven tech that worked. (discounting the conspiracy nuts out there) Sure, maybe you've got the most nuanced builds around, and you can stroke your own ego at how smart you are, but then, here you are complaining about losing...Interesting to me.

I think you just overestimate your own builds.

Yup, here's your problem.

do you really think your builds are 'perfect'? why dont i see you winning halls 24/7 then? i mean cmon in the worst case an edge bomb will come and blow you up.

actually no such thing exists. i mean what happens if two identical "perfect" builds meet and fight. if they trully were perfect, both would win, right? but thats not possible.... therefore it doesnt exist. proved.

It's safe to just ignore any posts Ollj makes.

He has a wee bit of a point.

One of the biggest reasons that most of those builds were nerfed was because they were idiot proof.

Air spiking was literally "5, 4, 3, 2, 1" and someone died. Even the best of guilds fell down not because of good skills, timing, and using your tools right, but that they was an imbalance.

Unfortunately, IWAY still works with pets, and they are still common as shit.

Air Spiking still required basic coordination and ability to use teamspeak... so not all idiots could use it.

While I don't agree with Ollj, I'm more inclined to say it's safe to ignore any posts that YOU make Bast. At least Ollj makes an effort to make a point while your posts are trolling one liners.

*pokes* Don't start a flame war. Keep it to the topic at hand.

erm air spike didn't get nerfed until chain lightning got hit, but that was wayyyy after air spiking died out.

i think what ollj was really getting at was this: if there were 8 of him (oh the horror) he could make this uBer 1337 team and go own everyone with his superior ___

and technically, if there were 8 of one person or if 1 person could somehow control (efficiently) all 8 characters, good build or not this group is at a huge advantage over any other team. so if his was the only one like that, sure i bet he would do really well.

otoh, if *everyone* could do that then i seriously doubt ollj's would be the best simply because theres always thet dedicated nerd who manages to beat everyone.

the next best thing is called a GUILD, somewhat related to the concept of <GUILD> wars.

anyway just saying

Bad players playing "idiot proof" builds still lose to good players.

quoted for pure, unadulterated, truth

if iway didnt work with pets it would be about as useless as

Otyugh's Cry - Shout
All animals in the area become hostile to your target and gain +20 armor for 30 seconds. Otyugh's Cry cannot turn charmed animals against their masters or their master's allies. (50% chance of failure with Beast Mastery 4 or less.)


well almost as useless

tho iway shouldnt work with allies pets just yours cause you dont get that attached to allies pets as you would yourown

if only Otyugh's Cry worked on peoples pets (maybe work it to were your own pet cant be turned against you but it can be used against your allies) tho they would have to lower the duration a bit but it would be useful and a decent counter to iway

Ollj does have a bit of a point.

many people want an instant payoff when using a new build. if they don't win the a few in the first few tries then they give it up.

presenting a new build can be very hard. after spending a week perfecting it you know it inside out. but much of the complexity has passed you by, you have grown with the build. nice shallow learing curve for you. very steep for everyone else.

i won't call them idiot proof but, the simpler builds will always be accepted more readily than builds that require lots of skill and time and patience. The more complicated builds have greater possibility of success. but they require a rare resource; patient, skilled players.

Tell that to some of the top 100 guilds losing to an IWAY.

That's why you never post your 'Ub3rZ 1337a$$ hAx000r' build on a
forum. Because then all the idiots will adopt it. And it will inevatably be
nerfed.

Besides, IWAY and Edge bombers (which are hilarious btw) are just
the most recent flavors of the month....look for something even more
bullsh*t to replace them soon.