Hey! I was thinking it might be worthwhile to come up with a universal ranking system for builds. For a completely new person looking at guides, they may get the idea that all are equally good when that’s definitely not the case. We already informally use terminology like “tier 1 build”, so we can expand on that framework. Here is my attempt at a tier list…
Tier 4.5 - Horrible builds. Only MIGHT be possible to beat the game on Ultimate (Log) even considering unlimited lives. Incapable of beating Aspirant Crucible even once.
Tier 4 - Poor builds. Can beat the game on Ultimate after many tries but can’t beat any other end game bosses. Is capable of beating Aspirant Crucible at least once.
Tier 3.5 - Meh builds. Can beat at least half of Ultimate content (excluding Mog) dying frequently on each boss, but there may be one or two bosses that just can’t be beat. Is able to beat Aspirant Crucible around 50% of the time.
Tier 3 - Decent builds. Can beat all of Ultimate content (excluding Mog) even if it dies frequently doing so. Is able to farm Aspirant Crucible (over 90% success rate) and may be capable of beating Challenger once.
Tier 2.5 - Good builds. Can beat all of Ultimate content (excluding Mog) with few deaths; may consider going hardcore. Can beat Challenger Crucible about 50% of the time.
Tier 2 - Great builds. Can beat all of Ultimate content (excluding Mog) with 0 deaths comfortably; one would feel confident playing builds of this tier and above on hardcore. Can farm Challenger Crucible (over 90% success rate) and may be able to beat Gladiator once.
Tier 1.5 - Fantastic builds. Can beat all of Ultimate content with 0 deaths and pretty fast kill speeds (<25sec MQ, <60sec dummy, etc.), and/or can beat Gladiator Crucible around 50% of the time. With tweaking, may be able to kill Ultimate Mog in < 30 minutes.
Tier 1 - Best builds. Can beat all of Ultimate content with 0 deaths and the fastest kill speeds (<12 sec MQ, <28 sec dummy, etc.), and/or can farm Gladiator Crucible (over 90% success rate). One would feel confident attempting hardcore Gladiator with this build. With tweaking, can kill Ultimate Mog in < 15 minutes.
It gets a little tricky since there’s different ways a build can be good (kill speed vs. tanky), but I feel this would generally describe what defines different levels of builds. For the record, this does NOT take into account the skill level required to play a build. Squib’s Retaliation Warder may be Tier 2 or 1.5 with a very low skill level needed, and the old DW phys/pierce BMs would probably be tier 1 with a very high skill level needed.
What do you guys think? Worthwhile idea or not important? Should they be defined differently? I look forward to hearing your opinions =)