Showing Posts For Iris Ng.9845:

Still Can't Get Into Challenge Modes

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I started learning CM 2 weeks after release by stalking and joining every 100 cm lfg listing I came across. I put down great dedication to memorize every tips and guides. You just have to keep looking and even making your own group. It’s not hard.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Do me a favor and let this one die

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

So, is it me or OP simply seek the entitlement of “Raiders = Invested Elites” under the veil of “We should have fun as a community” but raise the difficulty to bar casual players who don’t want to spend most of their time in raids?

What is wrong with you? Running out of other heights to reach? Sorry I start to understand the opening post and the author’s motivation less and less…

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Need more fractals like 100

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Back then fractals only scaled from 1-50. Now that they expand up to 100, I don’t see the reasons why the last dozen tiers are not difficult. Challenge mote is a welcome addition too. I got 16 hours of quality game time learning 100cm in two different classes and to get all the achievements. There is enough interest in me to try with 7 other classes in 100cm. It’s not getting in anyone’s way of farming their daily rewards either. I would love to see more of them coming.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Why not scale based on # in party?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Raid would be a fair choice wouldn’t it? They are 10-man instances content. OP now only needs to look for 2-3 more to join their group.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Do me a favor and let this one die

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Raid is accessible but also not easy to succeed. Recently a raiding friend of mine joined a WvW guild and managed to convince her guild to give raids a try. These people are who play WvW exclusively every day. Most of them don’t enjoy pve, nor care about fractals/dungeons (“what is raid? Is it near Bravost?”). They never min max to pve meta – wvw uses their own meta build, so it was a tall task to attune the whole group to a proper raid build and rotation. I worked with my friend to provide raid training to the group for three weeks now and also picked up 2-3 pugs in the training along the way. Result? Last week we managed to kill VG with 20s on the timer https://padl.tk/u/N8M9TP4S9AIY and had Escort down.

If an experienced raider looks at the padl log, he would rofl. The DPS is pitiful and the mechanics isn’t smooth (too many downs). So what makes this particular group successful? Communication! Coordination! Teamwork! Encouragement! Perseverance! Critiques! Coming from a WvW guild with vast experience in pugmanding, they already possess these qualities. Also precisely from a WvW background they get to enjoy the raids whose challenge is focused on more team coordination than a banal dps race.

So what takes away from my experience? If you want to get into raid and make the most of your experience, be an active part of the team and your team will be successful. If you put your own benefit or perception outside or above the team, your success rate will vary and it’s not the game’s fault.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

The Black Gate Issue

in WvW

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

So, about BG being popular ‘issue’, as a pug in BG, I would attribute it to the solidarity of the community, the good relationship between active guilds and the great atmosphere that many veterans earnestly foster. I have many alt accounts in different servers where I occasionally jumped in wvw to farm gift of battle for. The team/map chat in BG is generally more tolerable, less meme, less misogynistic, less raging and very clear in callouts, objective watching status, etc. Outside of reset day, we never queue in all maps, only EB is queued. We have many commanders who patiently take in pugs, train them and float. They respond very quickly to our scouts’ call and scouts in BG are strong in numbers and quality. For the last 2 months, I’ve seen guilds departing from BG because they couldn’t find fights in our matchup and it’s not the bad thing. In general, BG having a solid militia has something to do with the efforts to make wvw fun and fair to everyone in our server. It’s always bustling with activities there.

When you have enough people to dominate every timezone, why would anyone on BG complain? There might be a couple of timezones where you (BG) have some competition numberswise, but when BG has everything tier 3, and the other servers have most of their stuff paper, they’ll never win a skirmish.

I’m sure your community is fantastic as long you have the numbers to steamroll every other server.

It would be far from the truth. BG fighting power is above average at best. Aside from a couple of excellent fighting guilds mentioned in the other thread, the majority of BG militia are small guilds (15 or less) with pugs. Each of these guilds have their own commander and likes to run their own squad so during reset night or prime time, BG gets farmed in KDR pretty hard whenever our opponent team can field a good guild in a 40-man blob. Many guilds in BG are aware of their limitations and they are reinventing themselves everyday. We discuss on discord to help others with builds, coordination and improve gameplay. At least that’s the reality with the two guilds I an participating right now. When the core guilds and their commanders are strong, they attract more pugs and retain the interest. When the pve pugs win more, they stick to the game mode and becomes a regular. That is my fortunate case.

6 months ago, I had absolute no interest in serving a karma train. I’m sorry to say but every servers are the same when it comes to blobing, it’s brainless boring either winning or losing. I was around r140. One month before the wvw reward change, I decided to invest on WvW again to complete my achievements. At the time, most of the pugmanders were already on hiatus. Most of the bigger guilds took a break from the game. The population would be like half of what it is now. The newer guilds and commanders, I didn’t even recognize the name but followed out of curiosity. I decided to stay because:

- Holy craps, I’ve never seen so many female commanders/server leaders and they are awesome.

- The community is very courteous. Every time a commander tags up/ down, they are recognized and showered with appreciation.

- They teach and support new pugmanders. They reprimand the trolls. They are inviting in the new blood.

- When the old commanders and guilds came back to check out the wvw rewards, they lost quite a bunch of fight and even had their guild names made into memes. Yet, the majority of times, the old blood is welcome and supported to re-adapt to the new meta.

All of these things make me want to be a part of “them”, refer to BG as “us”, contribute to the hard work behind BG many-week winnings and feeling accomplished about it.

Feel free to label me as bandwagon. I’m the purest pve player anyways. My thought may explain why many pve players in BG enjoys the WvW and keep their ppt side strong. (No, that had nothing to do with gaming the system. We have the same access to WvW just like the pve players on your server. )

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

The Black Gate Issue

in WvW

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

So, about BG being popular ‘issue’, as a pug in BG, I would attribute it to the solidarity of the community, the good relationship between active guilds and the great atmosphere that many veterans earnestly foster. I have many alt accounts in different servers where I occasionally jumped in wvw to farm gift of battle for. The team/map chat in BG is generally more tolerable, less meme, less misogynistic, less raging and very clear in callouts, objective watching status, etc. Outside of reset day, we never queue in all maps, only EB is queued. We have many commanders who patiently take in pugs, train them and float. They respond very quickly to our scouts’ call and scouts in BG are strong in numbers and quality. For the last 2 months, I’ve seen guilds departing from BG because they couldn’t find fights in our matchup and it’s not the bad thing. In general, BG having a solid militia has something to do with the efforts to make wvw fun and fair to everyone in our server. It’s always bustling with activities there.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Raiding Community

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

That sounds like a bad experience to go through. I agree with Rising Dusk: block these people, give the a nickname to remind you why you should not be in the same group with them or bar their entry to your group. Sometimes, it’s for your peace of mind not to deal with them altogether rather than trying to figure out a reasonable compromise between you and these types of people. In short, give them zero tolerance.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Absolutely dislike the new fractal.

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I did all my related achievements at level 25. #NoShameWithThat

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

2k gold for legendary accessory

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I went for the collection as soon as the patch hit and decided to commit to crafting it after reading the same reddit thread. It’s more beautiful than I expected. The visual effect subtly enhances the other legendary weapons that my ele wears: Bifrost, Meteorlogicus and Howler yet it looks more impressive by itself than, let’s say, Sharur. In my opinion, the shininess justifies the price tag.

If the price is the thing you complain for, you will be in a crude awakening to the grind for its collection. Let’s say that it takes more time and effort than farming gold to afford Mystic Tribute.

I saved my mats gradually over time to go for The Shining Blade, but I’m glad I scrap that idea to go with Aurora. Love it!

P.S. link to the gif for better quality https://gyazo.com/51fc387819ae623cddb817bb32f2c1e7

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Best and worst experiences with raiding.

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

My best experience of pugs are gatherings of understanding people who are (somewhat) experience with the bosses and their roles. They would quietly and attentively adapt to the group’s need. They are chill to joke with and giving informative but unintrusive callouts. Their pleasant presence improves the raid experience.

My worst experiences are always related to narcissistic individuals. They have an endless need to express themselves and always find their ways to the center of senseless chatterings with hours of mundane topics regardless timings because “raid is too easy to do with a full attention”. They are pushovers who drivels the group to do their wills without any proper communication or direction then acting condescending and superiority when picking out others’ shortcomings. Bonus cringe when these individuals try to find external excuses for whatever errors they made then proceed to ragequit in the middle of the pulls without words. It doesn’t need the whole group to make a bad raid experience this way: only 1-2 bad apples and an hypertolerant raid leader. In the end, what’s left to consider is when to excuse yourself out of the group: bearing it until the boss is killed? Giving it a few pulls until the person acts out? Leaving on sight or even refusing to join in the first place?

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

(edited by Iris Ng.9845)

We will see a new fractal in ep 6! [edit]

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Any leaks about the new fractal?

>:C

It has been 5 months already? You worked hard.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

How do you name your characters?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

My naming conventions change over the years.

On the first year I wanted to make it easy and memorable for people to refer to me. So all five characters of mine were named with Iris and a second word describing the characteristic race or class. For example: my human elementalist is Iris Spellsinger, my sylvari mesmer Iris Flutterleaf, my asura guardian Iris of Synergetics (refer to group play synergy).

On the second year, I made my characters after movie chacharacter and pop cultural figure. They are also dressed after their names: Rita Vrataski (Edge of tomorrow), Saoirse (Song of the Sea), Hit Girl (kittenet), Black Canary (The Green Arrow).

On the third year, I payed homage to Guild Wars original skills. My sylvari ranger was Frozen Soil and revenant Flesh of My Flesh.

On the fourth year, I was inspired by the many nationalities surrounding me, their different vibes and voice accents on communication platform. I have a hot brown Latino mesmer named Luis Esteban and a Russian Sylvari colored after wild rhubarb called Alyy Tryasina (Scarlet Mire).

All my charrs have names with cat puns: Barrtholomeow, Wilhemeow and Once Bitten Mew Shy.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Would you like to see more "realistic" sets?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I just returned to the game. I think in my mind what I see is a difference in taste for stylization. People I know don’t like the over the top anime swords, etc. I don’t think it’s an issue. However, I’m not a fan of that style aesthetically speaking.

So, I would like to see new sets with sleeker forms, less pizzazz sticking out all over the place, more realistic if you will.

But I would like to see them added to the game’s current content and alongside continued content created in their current styles. I’m saying add to the options, don’t subtract from the options.

You should check out the individual armor pieces from Living Story 3 meta achievements. They are tastefully designed.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Post a pic of your character only if your armor is mix-n-match

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

My condi war in her dark armor.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Players coming to "help" you

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Every single trash mob is an additional roll for a precursor. I dare you not tag it.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Would you like to see more "realistic" sets?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

-snip-

I rarely see anyone wearing bladed or leystone armor, except for the light versions.

-snip-

TL;DR: I think Anet should return to the GW1/early GW2 roots of realism.

I disagree with you about “returning to the roots of realism”. I like the current GW2 universe and its fantasy aesthetics. There is a variety from high fantasy like dragons, druidic elves and mages to semi-realistic medieval monarch and knights to magic-tech like holographic, ley energy and airship to dystopian society like the charr’s homelands. I would hate to see GW2 suddenly starts limiting its designers’ creativity because a section of the community dislikes the looks of the others and wants to impose their selfish vision on the rest.

GW2 has a wonderful mix and match system that makes blade and spike can look impressive if styled and dyed right.

Attachments:

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Wardrobe: Revealing Male Armor/Outfits

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

For people who still care about skimpy armor options for their male scholars while waiting for Anet to drop new armor skins next year, here are some suggestions on top of my head:

  • Sleeveless Vest: Vigil’s, Leystone, Sorcerer’s (T3 Cultural)
  • Sleeveless with BDSM: Trickster’s
  • Short sleeve: Embroidered, Forgeman (SE dungeon), Wing, Conjurer’s, Primitive
  • Quarter sleeves: Aetherblade
  • Bare-chest: Feather/Flamekissed, Tribal, Incarnate, Zodiac (blue skinned)

That’s a handfull. Happy mix-and-match!

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Raids and LFG ... hmmm ... Clarity pls!

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Monday is the try-hard day, as in you’d better be good enough so groups can consistently clear 13 bosses within 1-2 pulls. It means near perfect knowledge of the class/build/meta strategy/boss telegraph attacks/callouts is desired. If you want to learn the boss, browse the LFG sometimes later in the week. There will be more training groups popping up and more bored experienced raiders look into killing time.

Edit: It’s not hateful to choose to play with other players of the same skills to create a like-mind, well-oiled team and kill a boss in a reasonable time. Not everyone wants to spend an hour on a boss which they can kill in 15 minutes if the group is experienced. Not everyone wants to teach others when their play time is on budget. They simply ask people to respect their way to play. Their squad, their rule. Make your own squad.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

(edited by Iris Ng.9845)

Doing Raids Without Voice Chat/Talking?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

A silent group would require you to be experienced and to know everything you are supposed to be doing without being told.
Kind of makes starting out with raids infinitely harder when aren’t willing to communicate or at least listen to voice chat. However, it isn’t completely impossible. Make your own squad if you can’t find any.

Personally, the major draw to play an MMORPG is the amount of people and getting to know them and communicating with them. Each their own, I guess.

Ah this! I often join random training raid group on lfg to kill time. Most silent/typetrain group are vulnerable to disintegration once problems arise without any active discussion for solutions. I tend to stay longer with groups having discord or TS. Coordination is much faster, easier and compliments, correction and callouts prove useful to the progression of training runs.

Also I find it funny but people who talk fluently on Voice comm tend to be chill and respected. On the other hand, keyboard warriors are like the most shy creatures on earth who can’t crack even a hello on comm.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Mesmer L4 Mentor for raids.

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Are you in NA?

15quagganswaitingforTeqatreset

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

[Suggestion] "Hard Mode" for PvE

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Have you tried speed-leveling with dungeons. Each dungeon path clear rewards you around 0.7 level. By speed running all current dungeon paths, you can level up your alt in a few hours. It’s inarguably more challenging than exploring, doing hearts and open world events. You can also spice up the challenge by doing the run with your very under-level alt (instead of swapping to it for credit reward at the end of the path) or low-man/solo the path. Before tomes were a thing, that was how I leveled up 4-5 alts of mine.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Doing Raids Without Voice Chat/Talking?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Play like a God and you don’t have to join any voice comm.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

If you are not inTS you don't matter.

in WvW

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Well, to be honest, if you’re following the tag, the correct thing to do is to join their teamspeak server if they’re advertising one. Otherwise, get off that particular tag and follow someone else, or put up a tag yourself.

There is no “correct” thing to do. If you are following an open tag (usually blue) then you are not obliged to do anything. TS is a courtesy on both sides, the one providing it and the one choosing to use it or not. However it’s by no means a required tool to play WvW efficiently or successfully.

I don’t frequent these forms too often anymore, but here’s a late reply

Yes, that is the correct thing to do. That person is leading their squad. They set it up how they want. If they don’t want to have someone not in teamspeak in their squad, that’s their right. If they don’t want non-TS users on their tag, that’s their right as well, especially since ANet refuses hidden/guild commander tags. You can go follow another tag, put up your own tag, or roam if you’re not happy with their rules.

Some good points being raised in this thread though

1. Disabilities

Yes. This is a huge problem. Those with disabilities should never be forced into teamspeak. I know I had a couple of people with hearing disabilities explain that to me so I knew to keep them in squad and not force them to join teamspeak. They even joined along later in advertising teamspeak. Also had a person that required hearing aids to hear, but still enjoyed being in teamspeak. Each person is different. Find a commander that is still happy to have you along.

2. Elitists in TS

Yeah… This is an issue. It’s extremely irritating to listen to. Having commanders call out random kitten and blaming random people that aren’t in their guild just feels bad to listen to. I’d leave the channel if that were the case

3. Noisy chatter

Okay, so it’s not for everyone, but TS3, for a lot of people, is a place to socialise with other people on your server. These are the people you have to play with day in and day out (server transfers aside). You’ll find a lot of times, that it will be the same people following specific commanders with a specific group every time. People will find their niche in their server and just hang around them. Each server is a huge community after all.

If you still prefer your music though, what I tend to do is to mute everyone but the commander, and have my music playing through my speakers, while TS3 audio goes through my headphones. Works a treat


Honestly, it’s generally better, if you’re following the tag, to join their teamspeak. If you can’t or won’t, just don’t join that tag. Such a simple solution.

So, what tag do I follow, when they’re the only game in town, and I/ve been booted, w. purchased boosters popped and a 2 hr que? O, don’t suggest I reroll and rewait, burning up boosters/food, etc. Don’t suggest I go solo, I have a zerg build and will just get picked off, hurting the server goals. Don’t suggest I run alongside the zerg, as it exactly the same thing as running with the squad w/o TS, only I get no protections so I die more (and the zerg doesn’t get my heals) so the zerg fails more (or alienates me by not rezzing, not healing, etc) and the server goals fail more often (than if I were in squad). I’m confused. Such a simple suggestion that doesn’t help.

I didn’t know you have such a global impact after getting dropped from the squad. Iirc, BG still won the skirmishes during the three hours you were engaging on your Team Chat conquest instead of scoring points. Many bags have been had.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

If you are not inTS you don't matter.

in WvW

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I am a 100% supporter of voice communication in games where player cooperation is key, such as in GW2 WvW. I can imagine the hilarity that would ensue if a football team never talked to each other during a game, or if a LoL team couldn’t hear call outs, or if you’re office staff never talked with each other to land that big client.

I don’t use a mic so I don’t talk but it is a huge help to hear what the Commander is saying. It’s amazingly obvious how successful a team is that is in TS versus one that isn’t.

If you find another TS user to be abrasive or distracting, mute them and you never have to listen to them again. If someone is being hateful, you are well within your right to ask them to stop (hey just like real life!) and I would even encourage you to bring issues to the TS Admins and they can permanently ban someone who is harassing other players or being hateful. Most (maybe all?) of the TS Admins I know would do that.

Good luck!

Question and a serious one. What do you do about the hearing impaired? I having hearing difficulties for one (not deaf) but really hard to follow in TS or what have you. Generally I follow in game chat and pin…

To answer your question, here are some personal tips. I’m not native English speaker so I have a hard time listening to different accents of the commanders I most follow- British, Taiwanese, Spanish, Thai, etc. So, what I do is to focus on the short codewords.

Symbol: staff symbol 3k for guard aka. Be ready on the move.

Empower: staff 4, quick Might aka. Ready to engage the enemy. Everyone stays on tag.

Stab Up: stability up. Charge. Frontline stays on tag, backline avoids the enemy charge and bomb.

Bomb: bring down all the dps, cleave, aoe on tag or the target. Sometimes commanders will use squad marker to indicate where they want to bomb. If not, it means they want you to bomb on where frontline goes, aka. On Tag.

Haze: lay down AoE (necro mark, lava font) in front or above the group to deter or whittle down the force that is about to cross. Stay behind tag and wait for Empower.

In case you cannot make out of these codewords by the sound of it, learn the visual cue of the skills to follow up appropriately. If you absolutely cannot join voice communication and cannot read your commander’s movement (fake veil, bait turn, sustain through choke, abrupt turn after choke, portal bomb), then it’s best for you and the squad to pick up a tanky backline build. Call target the tag and keep distance from him so you don’t get rolled over in a big fight.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

[Poll] How popular are raids at the moment

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Because if it wasn’t for the handsome Raid guy, that pretty girl would be my wife and his kids mine. /s

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Post your Canthan/Elonian characters!

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I’m Asian. I grew up deeply influenced by the wuxia trend in the ‘90s, so I’m always fascinated by ancient East Asian culture. Most of my characters have this modern Asian face but once in awhile, I made costumes for them heavily inspired by those.

Below are my thief, posing as a kunoichi (female ninja) cladded in battle armor, and my elementalist, as a noble bride in the Song dynasty gracefully playing her pipa.

Attachments:

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Fractal versions of the Raids?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

quoted from somewhere else.

"""

The problem with farbstoffs condi necro rotation is, a big part of your damage relys on combo finishers in chill fields. You will almost never be able to do combofinishers in a real raid where you have constant light, fire and ethereal fields underneath you. Also necro reached only 30k with UNREALISTIC buffs which is still lower than for example a condi warrior with realistic buffs. So what would be the point at bringing a necro ever?

"""

Not true. If you build a heavy condi team (hello, meta!) then you will have almost 100% Firefield uptime for your delicious burning stack. Also on bosses where cleaving is vital (Mursaat Overseer, Slothasor), your contributing (total) damage is more valuable than the single target damage. It helps your group get a smooth, painless kill and ease the pressure on support group where they can push for more damage (Magi druid → Viper druid). If you use the class wisely, it is a NET GAIN for your group.

I present you my guild’s lazy way to deal with CM boss 2, wing 4: https://youtu.be/q8srTwDaFWY In this version of two reaper, two magi druids, a total time of 4:12. We shafted it off by 30 seconds by changing to 1 condi engi, 1 reaper, 1 magi druid, 1 viper druid. Are 30 seconds worth it? Totally subjective.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Fractal versions of the Raids?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

It’s funny how people exclude themselves from playing reapers in raids. Sure, if you’re playing it bad, you’ll get kicked – and it’s not because the class is bad, the player is bad!

In my static run, we use 2 necros (sacrilege!) all the time in Wing 2 clear. The DPS check there is trivial enough that utilities of the necro actually outweighs its limited DPS output: Epidemic, Plague Signet, Transfusion, CC, sturdiness… you name it.

We even use necros for Boss 1/2/3 in wing 4, or in this easy peasy challenge mote of boss 2: https://youtu.be/q8srTwDaFWY
Look at their damage! What’s there to complain about? Pug excludes you? Then show them your amazing real time DPS and contribution.

In before you said “Oooh, you can only play necro in a static group…” Mind you, the necro in this kill was technically a pug, not a guildie. He gave us the suggestion and we gave it a go. It worked, we adopted it. He even got the kill in pugs several times on Monday before coming to help.

In the end, your roundabout way of making your class acceptable in (pug) Raids to access their shiny rewards is easily solved with by… playing the content as is.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Wing 4 cm not fun

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I see my static group improves as a whole since we killed Deimos CM. We deviated from the notion of “playing qT meta or none at all”/ “my DPS is real important” to experimenting different builds, gear sets and strategies to suit our unique strength and weakness. Despite the tension and salt level after 20 hours of wiping, we made bold decisions of swapping people from traditional roles to fulfill other key roles, changed our way of active communications and woke ourselves up from the slumber of auto-piloting through old days of weekly clears.

I agree, pugging CM will have too many salt but if you have a group of friends and progress through it, it’s one of the better experience in GW2.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Support Professions/Builds?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Here is a few meta and semi meta builds for different classes, take a look

Alot more of them, but starting to be a LONG post, so will only list a few more, since you asked about guard, ele and “reaper?” I will list these. If you are looking for something more specific let me know.

You did not need to go through all this trouble! I edited out the latter bit as I already had decided to go check out Druid and didn’t really care for any more pointers.
If nothing else it’s a handy list to come back to though and I rather appreciate the effort.

I also think Druid suits you the best after reading your inspiration. If you decide to get into raiding, shoot me a message in game, I’ll invite you to my guild and show you the ropes.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Make Selfless/Selfish Potions into infusions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Good idea! I can make an angel prototype again.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Necro not optimal for fractals

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Ehm, excuse me but I play tempest at t4 daily and it’s no where near the point of “dying from being breathed on”. I agree that playing condi necro is easy in fractals and for the records I was one of the few first people to promote playing necro in t4 if players can’t handle the mechanics to save their own hide. That doesn’t mean playing anything else than necro is impossible to be as good.

In this one particular thing in discussion: add cleaving, protection means nothing, boon stealing means nothing, armor defense means nothing. The adds have very little health pool that a clever pull, disabling and powerful burst are all needed to cleave them down.

You guys start making me doubt that either all the good players I know either quit the game or jump to this necro train for everyone starts worshipping it as a be-all-end-all solution.

Yes I’ve done all of this before it’s even meta and I still stand behind my words and say a good tempest/DH burst + chrono pull can out cleave the 5 necro epidemic.

Now if Anet decides to nerf minions or make environmental damage kill them quicker or simply make add leave no corpse, the necro meta will cease to exist. But that’s another thing to debate.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Soul river glider 500 gems...

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I bought the bundle 6-7 months ago. Even though 2k gems are steep, I’m happy with it. I like both the glider and the outfit, especially no other gliders look great on a couple of my thematic characters. Aside from those, I wouldn’t pay for the Dye kit, Makeover kit and Immortal Weapon crate separately. However, considering their values and usefulness to me, I don’t find myself overpaying for the bundle. I’m glad that Anet finally offers the glider as a stand alone item with a fair price. It’s commendable.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Necro not optimal for fractals

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I wish I took the screen shot when I pug T4 fractals with my DH friend

And I don’t quite understand your implication of “perfect pulls”. The current mesmer’s pull is stupidly easy and precise. Before HoT, you may have to draw a geometry in your head to pull everything together. Not to mention whatever you miss, the DH can just pull them with their F1. What’s so hard about it?

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

The new Swamp [Merged]

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

There’s a difference between an hp sponge and having enough health to not die to burst damage that completely ignores any mechanics going on.

Fractals have their optimal planned running time. Increasing time for a Mossman fight must be compensated by reducing something else then.

Why? As others have mentioned, toss a few extra encryptions in the chest to make up for the ‘money loss’ or just say screw it and people can decide if it’s worth it or not themselves (I’d say yes).

Pretty sure “running time” was why Cliffside and Snowblind were toned down and shortened significantly. The current Mossman is fine, I find that breaking his defiant bar trivializes him anyways. I would suggest making the bar regen much slower than the current rate or tying it with skills that deal agony damage like Gouge.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Necro not optimal for fractals

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

4 tempests/ or trap DHs + 1 chrono with g.well will out cleave your 5 necro setup. Especially in those three specific fractals.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Necro not optimal for fractals

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Most of the effectiveness of power builds comes from Might and Fury – which some people may struggle to keep up or re-apply on T4. I still like the current status quo which favors condi class even though I do fractal dailies with my zerker tempest. There are challenges to people who prefer the traditional zerk-way and ease of play to people who follow the conventional condi-way

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

How many people raid?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

As of ~11 August, GW2 efficiency had the following stats

  • ~56% have [zero magnetite shards]
  • ~18% have 1-50 shards;
  • ~10% have 50-150 shards;
  • ~16% have more than 150 shards;

The above suggests that a lot more people have tried raiding than many of us might have guessed.

However, it’s probably fair to say that the GW2/E numbers overstate participation by a “significant” fraction.

  • Not that many people allow their API information to be publicly available via this site.
  • GW2 efficiency can’t estimate how many people play the game across any dimension, including concurrency (those logged in at the same time), hours spent playing vs chatting etc, number of active sessions per player, etc.
  • M-Shards might not be the best metric to measure participation, since you can build up a fair number without succeeding and then give up on raiding. (Unfortunately, we can’t easily look at legendary insights.)

So my guess is that GW2/E’s numbers represent an upper bound:

  • For sure, less than half of players have stepped foot in raids.
  • Those who start raiding ‘mostly’ continue to raid.
  • “Probably” more people have tried raiding in GW2 than have tried its equivalent in other games.

I’m in the camp of raiding every week but spend every last shards to gearing alts. Does Gw2E account for it? 220+ Insights but less than 200 shards now

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

How many Precursors have you found?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

~9 k hours and almost 4 years old

Storm from Leurent.

I’m fine with not getting anything. I ended up making ten legendaries anyways.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

(edited by Iris Ng.9845)

Raid - Group forming difficulty

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

1. In off hours and not using lfg, yes! During prime time and from friend list only, no. If I spend more than 30 mins making a group it’s probably going no where.
2. No, micromanaging one’s own group is the biggest challenge. First, one needs to understand the capability of his member in their respective role and decides on a suitable group synergy on that. Secondly, one creates a comfortable grouping experience by allowing their members to comfortably play their desired classes but at the same time ensures that the general performance is not dropping; deciding when and where carrying is needed and appropriate. To illustrate this point, when I’m not with my static group, there are only a handful people whom I trust completely in their ability and will assign them in a key role: Tank, solo healer, CC, main glass cannon, main mechanics runner and 100% boon chrono. The other members will have relatively easier job. For example, we pugged 3-4 spots at Gorseval with one is still new at druid and 2 members wanted to play daredevil and the other condi reaper. So I reorganized the group to 4-4-2, have only one ele on tactical orb clearing (read: not full clearing / just sectional), have one more experienced druid to hold the group together during the break bar phase while the new druid is learning the rope, instruct the reaper how to optimize damage and use epidemic for cleaving, etc. We killed the boss after a couple of pulls with people who actually listened and followed the lead. DPS was so good that spawning orbs is a non-issue.

3. Anet can’t do anything to improve the player’s behavior and mindset. It’s on us to improve our positive experience. I hate pugging so much and it’s not because people are inexperienced and make mistakes. I don’t mind spending hours helping people fix things. Pug has vastly different experience yet most seem narrow minded and unwilling to follow the lead. Take that gorseval run for example. I spent more time and effort to get pug to stay and try things than the actual fight itself. People came in, saw the two DD and reaper, asked them to swap to tempests (??!), lectured the group about how tempest DPS is uncontested supreme and then… left. It’s not just rude and jokes on them for they missed out the kill. Or those PS-in-shadow who joined, got the kill and quietly left without ever saying a word.

My only suggestion is to improve sorting features for my friend list. Currently Ihave to manually change people’s nicknames to provide me a hint of their in game relation to me. I wish we could have more categories in our friend list and broadcast/multi-PM features for easier Looking for Men.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Necro not optimal for fractals

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Friends- I understand that necromancer has “longevity” and that conditions are good in high toughness environments- but it is ridiculous that people assume a full team of necromancers is “optimal”. I was kicked from a party because the other 4 players decided removing a chronomancer for a 5th necro was the “elite” and “meta”

No use getting upset over stupid, you can’t beat it.

but can it be nipped in the bud? i wouldnt have taken the time to write a post about it if i didnt see it every day in the t4 lfg /sigh

Why bother policing what other groups want to play? Honestly, i’d rather see my pug playing condi necro than all going gsword mesmer or bearbow. Run whatever you like in your own group. I don’t see a point to write up a knee-jerk reaction post about pug. Pug itself is never the meta.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Armour Design Time

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I don’t know why but a lot of people tend to over look :

  • Guild Ornate Armor
  • Triumphant Armor and Triumphant Hero counterpart

Are they that obscure to not counted?

Also if you compare the game at launch and the expansion at launch, the vanilla game has a lot of cosmetic assets at the expense of little to no endgame content at all. The outrage at the time when people reached level 80 and had nothing else to do but a handful of dungeons and the new WvW mode to keep their interest was very apparent. I remember it very well as I’ve lost quite a few friends burnt out during the long build up of season 1.

The programmers that specialize in developing cosmetic items are obviously not the same as the ones that design endgame content. The fact that they are designing less armors has nothing to do with endgame, and it likely has to do with the gem store.

You are right about ornate guild and triumphant armor though, they are armor sets that are usually not mentioned. However, even if you include those, HoT has not had even a fourth of the armors of the base game. I’m not expecting the same amount as the base game in an expansion, just a fourth.

I’m not working for ANET nor in a game industry so I can’t really tell what sorts of work a graphic designers for a game company do. But today I learned that Lena Chappelle, before becoming the in-house music composer, was a QA, a character designer, a game content developer and everything in between. So unless an Anet confirms about their armor making process, I’m just drawing a strawman argument as much as everyone else here does. No offense though.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

why do raid discriminate classes?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

On topic, 3 Healers are nice, too!

Attachments:

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Armour Design Time

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

I don’t know why but a lot of people tend to over look :

  • Guild Ornate Armor
  • Triumphant Armor and Triumphant Hero counterpart

Are they that obscure to not counted?

Also if you compare the game at launch and the expansion at launch, the vanilla game has a lot of cosmetic assets at the expense of little to no endgame content at all. The outrage at the time when people reached level 80 and had nothing else to do but a handful of dungeons and the new WvW mode to keep their interest was very apparent. I remember it very well as I’ve lost quite a few friends burnt out during the long build up of season 1.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

(edited by Iris Ng.9845)

Best raid party comp

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Since starting the practice of 2 full healing druids and totally ditching the idea of squeezing DPS from the druid of my group(s), there are a couple of advantages I find worth considering:

  • You can outheal the damage and totally ignore some mechanics that help improve the total group DPS. Cases in point,
    a. You can totally ignore the green circle and floor rotation at VG.
    b. You can ignore the break bar of Gorseval and your group can still DPS under the druid’s babysitting.
    c. You can ignore the cannon at Sabetha while hugging the champions.
    d. You can somewhat ignore the incoming threat of the green poisonous area if your friendly slub gets cleaved down accidentally.
  • You can dispatch the druid to deal with the side mechanics:
    a. Have druids take turns to eat the mushroom at Slothasor
    b. Have one druid take care of CC the Saboteur
    c. Have one druid go to red boss during split at VG and keep the necro’s minions alive.
    d. Each druid takes the role of either escorting corruption/well carrier or healing the group. Free your reaper from taking Blood Magic. More CC power and group wide stun break.
    e. Have one druid taking flak at Sabetha while the other keeps a higher uptime of the buff on the group.
  • You can have one druid tank and more focus on tanking.
    a. VG
    b. Gorseval
    c. KC
    d. Xera
“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

(edited by Iris Ng.9845)

Best raid party comp

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

My group tends to be on the lazy side. Even with 4-4-2 comp, we usually do 2 magi druids and still one shot every bosses with plenty time left on the timer. Many time when someone kitten ed and we had to 9-man the encounter early, the two healing druids don’t really detract from our smooth experience. Furthermore, it’s a good setup for our people to rotate between roles and learn them. For example, we’ve been having our PS swap to chrono/ druid, main chrono to druid/tempest, main DPS to PS/different DPS… etc. But we only started doing so after having a solid foundation and satisfying execution of our main classes. For new raiders, stick with one class and become good at it before switching.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

Less outfits, more armors.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Maybe minor opinion here but I like both armors and outfits. I’m an avid practitioner of GW2 fashion but I don’t own all the skins yet. I still have 3-4 more sets of gem store armor skins I choose not to buy because I don’t see any potential usage. So I’m against the idea of ANet wastes a lot of resource to design and develop something that ends up not suit everyone’s taste.

On the other hand, for whatever best interest Anet continues releasing outfits. If they are pretty and original, I’ll gladly buy them. Even after the novelty wears off (usually 2 weeks), I don’t regret buying outfits. They are still useful for when I make a new armor set and can’t decide about its fashion. I’m also fond of the special occasion outfits for guild events and celebration.

Having said that, I welcome the input of both armors and outfits. Whenever I can support the gem store, I will. Guild Wars 2 is an amazing game. I don’t see outfit release as a reason to detract myself from enjoying the game to the point of boycotting it.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

What happened to Wing 3?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Nope

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

why do raid discriminate classes?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Iris Ng.9845

Iris Ng.9845

Just wanted to chime in that I have seen most (if not all) groups struggle to phase the boss and wipe when there are 5-6 minutes left on the timer rather than make it to the enraged timer (LOL!) It is super rare to see the latter and to be frank, this kind of group:

  • Must have really good healers.
  • And they have a good knowledge on the mechanics to sustain through it.
  • They most likely choose a low DPS build or simply stop attacking by choice.

So I fail to see the complaint about enrage timers restricting new players’ experience with raids. On the other hands, the mechanics in GW2 are truly punishing without any advanced knowledge. One of these days, if I walk into a noob training run and stay quiet, new players would drop down (by mechanics) in 30 seconds flat! Get cleaved by VG? Get bursted by the blue teleportation AoE? Not step out of the black goop at Gorseval? Not bother avoiding the flame wall at Sabetha? Not dodge out of Slothasor tantrum and flame breath? Not dropping the corruption/ well at Matthias? Wander and step on mines at Escort? Not dodging KC massive jump? Step into all the deadly aoe in Xera? All of these require ZERO play skills but are the most common mistakes in any training runs that I lead. I could harp on and on until my trainees do it by reflex and guess what? Those who make it to the enrage timer and wipe when the boss is at 10% HP left are only a couple of hours away from their first kill. The best part is their next kill only get better from there with their building up experience.

So yeah, please enlighten me how enrage timer is an issue, dear casual/beginner/easy moder raiders. Give me your screenshots, VoD, etc. I’ll be gladly troubleshooting for your group.

“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”

- doranduck, 2016 on Lore in Raids

(edited by Iris Ng.9845)