I’ve been hyperfixating on builds in Guild Wars 2 since returning for Janthir Wilds, and it’s actually the first time in that MMO that I’ve ever even considered using somebody else’s build. For my main character, I had a build that pretty much matched the meta already, and just my gear needed updating. For some of my alts, though, I just slotted in something the experts have vetted and have been tweaking to my tastes as I go. Why completely reinvent the wheel?
And you’d think that just copying a build and following rotations would lead to a shallow understanding of the game, but doing it several times now across toons on my family’s accounts actually gave me way more insight than I ever had before about how the game is structured and balanced. I’m much more impressed with the character elite spec design, but I also think I see how the balance sort of ran away from ArenaNet, same as it did in GW1.
Do you use your own character builds in MMORPGs? Or do you borrow from the pros?