Guild Wars 2

• Flatten the maps and make them smaller. It is fine to have hills and valleys but choke points around every corner is not fun. Snowden Drift is a map that has lots of hills and valleys but you can move freely across terrain. Something similar to this would be great for WvW. Commanders would need to send outriders to avoid ambushes!

• Population balance. This is a hard one and I am not sure how it could be tackled. A mega-server approach would work but it would remove cohesion within guilds/allies and pride in your server; which I would very much dislike to see. The other thing could be to introduce factions into GW2 and merge population across servers. You would no longer be fighting for your server but for your faction. Initially start with one set of maps and create more instances if there are enough people online from each faction to fill them. Show all available instances and allow people to move between them to support their allies. The instances would need to have a short lifespan of a few hours to adjust to changing population – similar to EotM match lengths perhaps (I am sorry for mentioning EotM).

• Re-instate stability as it used to be. It would give skilled groups the chance to wipe zergs again. Nothing is more satisfying than a 20-30 man ball of hate facing a map blob and leaving nothing behind but corpses. This was what made me love WvW.

• Restrict siege to structures. If a structure is not within range of a siege item, it cannot be placed. This still would allow using trebuchet to bring down walls but would remove most of open field siege.

• GvG and dueling arenas with spectator seating/area. The OS one is great but far too often GvG matches get interrupted by trolls. I am sure more can be said about what needs to be done for this feature.

Fellfoot.8156:

Ehhh, O.o …drop and give us 20? Seriously though, it’s the Devs that are responsible for game content.

Push ups done. It only took 22 breaks and a good meal to finish.

Dawdler.8521:

Yes. Hang your head in shame. Be afraid to even talk to Anet.

I was young.

I had made a suggestion way back: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/cdi/Collaborative-Development-Edge-of-the-Mists/page/5#post3695249

Once I found how the Oasis event worked, it jugged my memory. Am I responsible for the insufferable-lag event? If so, that is not how I had hoped it.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Skinner.4376:

Thanks ANet! Didn’t expect the ban hammer to happen this fast. A nice belated Wintersday gift to the community.

I have been told of a certain sea snake which has a very unusual method of attracting its prey.

Time to watch my favourite movie again.

T1 is not very pleasant for solo roamers. It’s primarily due to high population. As far as I am aware, T2 is not free from this either. Your best bet for finding solo fights would be T3/4.

Expect the same amount of help we received which may be summarised as ‘live with it’.

You have the same issue as us: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Unplayable-lag-since-yesterday

Our pings go back to normal around the precisely the same time of 2 am EST as well.

Poitus,

Absolutely, if I am online. I have also contacted TPG to see if it’s an issue on their end as you, XeRaus and I have TPG as our ISP.

Poitus,

Yes, TPG is my ISP in Syndey. I am on ADSL2+.

The game continues to be unplayable.

Pathing output currently where the game is playable:

C:\Users\Spiff>pathping -w 500 -q 100 -4 64.25.39.1

Tracing route to 64.25.33-1.ncsoft.com [64.25.39.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 Spiff-PC [192.168.1.100]
1 192.168.1.1
2 10.20.22.74
3 202-7-214-134.tpgi.com.au [202.7.214.134]
4 syd-sot-ken-int1-be-10.tpgi.com.au [203.219.35.3]
5 * las-b3-link.telia.net [62.115.49.137]
6 las-b21-link.telia.net [213.155.134.250]
7 * dls-b21-link.telia.net [62.115.139.6]
8 ncsoft-ic-307708-dls-b21.c.telia.net.10.115.62.in-addr.arpa [62.115.10.106]

9 * 64.25.32-9.ncsoft.com [64.25.32.9]
10 64.25.32-26.ncsoft.com [64.25.32.26]
11 * 64.25.33-1.ncsoft.com [64.25.39.1]

Computing statistics for 275 seconds…
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 Spiff-PC [192.168.1.100]
0/ 100 = 0% |
1 0ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 192.168.1.1
4/ 100 = 4% |
2 19ms 4/ 100 = 4% 0/ 100 = 0% 10.20.22.74
0/ 100 = 0% |
3 25ms 6/ 100 = 6% 2/ 100 = 2% 202-7-214-134.tpgi.com.au [202.7.214.134]
0/ 100 = 0% |
4 21ms 4/ 100 = 4% 0/ 100 = 0% syd-sot-ken-int1-be-10.tpgi.com.au [203.219.35.3]
41/ 100 = 41% |
5 243ms 51/ 100 = 51% 6/ 100 = 6% las-b3-link.telia.net [62.115.49.137]
0/ 100 = 0% |
6 228ms 45/ 100 = 45% 0/ 100 = 0% las-b21-link.telia.net [213.155.134.250]
9/ 100 = 9% |
7 266ms 54/ 100 = 54% 0/ 100 = 0% dls-b21-link.telia.net [62.115.139.6]
0/ 100 = 0% |
8 —- 100/ 100 =100% 46/ 100 = 46% ncsoft-ic-307708-dls-b21.c.telia.net.10.115.62.in-addr.arpa [62.115.10.106]
0/ 100 = 0% |
9 261ms 54/ 100 = 54% 0/ 100 = 0% 64.25.32-9.ncsoft.com [64.25.32.9]
1/ 100 = 1% |
10 —- 100/ 100 =100% 45/ 100 = 45% 64.25.32-26.ncsoft.com [64.25.32.26]
0/ 100 = 0% |
11 269ms 55/ 100 = 55% 0/ 100 = 0% 64.25.33-1.ncsoft.com [64.25.39.1]

Trace complete.

Screenshots of my ping from a few hours ago where the game was unplayable and current one. When the game was unplayble, it was not a simple skill lag but rather people would jump around. The ping would fluctuate to very high values.

I have had lag issues for the past few days as well. I connect to NA servers from Australia.

My ping is normally around 250-300 ms, which is playable. In the past few days it has gone to 550-600 ms. The ping can go very high when a large number of players/creatures are nearby. The ping becomes worse the longer I am connected to GW2.

I was sceptical of removal of white swords. I am now convinced it was a good thing. While losing structures to ninjas is frustrating, it has given smaller guilds the opportunity to make a difference in WvW.

However, despite scouting being necessary now in WvW they get absolutely no rewards for scouting. Admittedly it is difficult to introduce a system where scouts could be clearly identified and rewarded. How about introducing scanners that can be planted similar to wards in games like League of Legends.

Stand The Wall.6987:

Has to stop.

Commander sniping is when one or usually several people within a zerg dedicate their build (corrupt boon, rapid fire, magnet etc.) to taking down the enemy commander.

For those of you who havent experienced this, youre probably saying to yourself “well this really doesnt sound so bad”. Wrong. Its so… gamebreaking. Your zerg can be looking for theirs for half an hour, and all it takes is some kittenwit to come along and ruin the fun. I have been in more then one situation where both of our zergs just mill around, running back and forth, because both commanders are scared of getting sniped, thus wiping their zerg, thus causing people to log off, thus causing a giant kittening snowball effect that KILLS THE kittenING GAME.

Thats the problem. Here is a proposal.

After (10, 20, 30?) people join a commanders squad, that commander gains a buff that either makes him immune to all such sniping skills, or a flat bonus to toughness and vitality.

Despite my personal dislike for it, it is a legitimate strategy. The best thing to do here is to find ways of countering it. For example, mesmer veil before engages can make pin sniping harder.

Pin sniping has always existed but to a lesser degree and was much harder to pull off. Most of the pin snipe attempts are currently performed by the hoard of rangers; and it is no longer that difficult to do.

The class that was shunned (by the commanders) in WvW for being useless are out seeking vengeance. However, rangers are disliked by the larger community now. I suppose there is a lesson here for those who seek such things.

My necro is almost lab grown [EotM farm]. It’s level 80 and I have no idea how to play it or how to build it. I am not a new player, so it’s not a huge issue that I rushed to level 80.

I am trying to get my hands on a full DPS power build for WvW zerg fights. I play an elementalist in full berserker gear and scholar runes. I have no problem staying alive and blowing things up. My survival comes primarily from positioning and I have cantrips for the emergencies. I do not know how differently necro will play compared to an elementalist. This makes it difficult for me to decide on gear: should I go full berserker or sprinkle some soldier/knight/valkyrie here and there? Which runes and sigils should I go for?

I quite like the build on MetBattle: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Wells_Backline, but this ‘liking’ is not an informed view.

I am constantly disconnecting after 4-5 mins in game. There is also a lot of skill lag.

I had made a suggestion along similar lines a while back. In the ‘Collaborative Development: Edge of the Mists’ thread.

Soul Evil.2734:

I updated Avast.

Started the reinstall from gw2setup.exe and saved it to my desktop

Canceled the download – copied the gw2.exe from the new folder on my desktop and put it in the original gw2 folder and launched it.

It reset my in-game settings (volume, windowed mode, etc.) But I am at the char screen now.

I am going to try this. Thank you.

Sunjammer.5209:

Check the Quarantine (Virus Chest) – you may be able to restore it from there (in Avast, go to Scan > Scan for viruses > Quarantine (Virus Chest)). The Quarantine (Virus Chest) is a link in lower right of the ‘Scan for viruses’ screen. Right-click and restore. Whitelist GW2 (in Avast, go to Settings > General > scroll down to Exclusions > add your GW2 install directory).

What Jenovah said is correct in my case as well.

Narkodx.1472:

Castrin.8972:

Narkodx.1472:

When you want to disengage just click on the ground to de-target

I think that is incorrect. It de-highlights the current target but the targeting is still there. The reason I say this is that when attacking and you try to select something 2-5 but due to range or LoS block you accidentally target a friendly the auto attack seems to continue.

The only way I know of to fully disengage is to press ESC. Sometimes you have to quick spam it due to attack timing. Binding the ESC to a mouse button (if you have a gaming mouse) would work I should think.

Peace.

I think it depends if you have auto target on/off

I have it off and it works for me

When auto-target is off, yes you can deselect your target by clicking on the screen. However, some of us have autotarget on most of the time but we want to be able to turn it off by a keypress instead of having to open the settings page.

There’s only one theme to Asuras: ‘goofing off’. It helps to look cute though.

It is good (?) that I am not the only one. GW2 was working fine then it started lagging hard. I restarted GW2, it didn’t help; restarted PC, still did not help; closed GW2 and Avast pop-up told me it has deleted GW2.exe.

Avast anti-virus deleted the GW2.exe for being infected. I did not read the details as to the nature of the supposed virus.

Anyone knows why?

Also, if I try to re-install GW2, will I have to sit through a full re-install/download? Is it possible to simply download GW2.exe by itself?

EDIT:
The following worked for me based on suggestion of Soul Evil.2734:
1. Download the client from GW2 website.
2. Run it and install GW2 in a different folder to your current one. I did the fresh install on my desktop.
3. Once the installed starts downloading files (you’ll see the massive list of remaining files) cancel the install.
4. Copy and paste GW2.exe from the new install folder to your old one.

Enjoy.

P.S. I added GW2 folder to Avast’s whitelist.

Nabrok.9023:

Stupendous Man.4920:

I have always meaning to ask the skill clickers: how do you use skills that require area targeting? For example, thief’s Shadowstep: when clicking on it, it casts it under the foot of my character.

I don’t skill click, but my wife does. You just have to leave it on the normal ground targeting option which requires you to click twice.

You can’t use the instant or fast with target options.

Ohhh I see! Cheers.

I have always meaning to ask the skill clickers: how do you use skills that require area targeting? For example, thief’s Shadowstep: when clicking on it, it casts it under the foot of my character.

Ignoring whether you are a troll or not, here’s a summary of what others have suggested that may help you. The correct response to their help would be ‘thank you’.

• Every task in this game that has been designed to be soloed can be done with any class. Some players are able to solo even group tasks.
• Until you learn the game mechanics and the class you are playing, your kitten will be handed to you often. GW2 is not one of those games where once you pump enough levels and gear you become invincible. You are always vulnerable.
• Not every class is suitable for every person’s play style/taste. Find the one that suits you. I play mainly a glass canon thief which can be one-shotted by a lot of enemies. I still do the hardest PvE content in GW2 without issues.
• Each class has its own strengths/weaknesses. Learn them and use the knowledge in fights.

Is it possible to add a keybind for toggling autotageting on/off? Currently we have to turn autotargetting on/off by going through the settings menu.

As an example, playing a staff elementalist in WvW. I want autotargetting on most of the time. However, when it comes time to run away I want autotargetting off so I can use Fiery Greatsword to get away from the enemy.

If this feature already exist and I have not been able to find it, please let me know.

Just get your kitten back to JQ you kitten!

For kittens sake! You cannot salvage WvW either!? I made a post a while back about salvaging karma gear. There is nothing in the kittening game that tells you before hand that you cannot salvage these items.

In that post I suggested the following “Since ANet is not against personal usage of the karma items, how about making the runes account bound and not giving anything else from salvaging them? Or at the very least, a “Not salvageable!” text in the item description?”

How about a kittening item description text saying “YOU CANNOT SALVAGE THIS ITEM.” At the very least give us a kittening warning. I am trying to re-gear my characters and now I find that the items I bought with WvW tokens cannot be salvaged and my runes are gone.

I have not read the posts above me. The following may have been suggested/dismissed already.

Let the people on the map dictate who can/cannot place siege.

• Anyone who wishes to place siege, starts a timed in-game poll.
• The players currently on the map vote for or against it.
• If the vote passes, the person gets permission for period of time to place as may siege as they like. [e.g. 1-2 hour buff]
• If the vote fails, the person is not allowed to place siege and cannot start another poll for a period of time. [e.g. 0.5-1 hour debuff]

Possible issues:

• When not many people are on the map for a meaningful poll. In this scenario, allow anyone to place siege but with the initially stated ‘exhaustion’ debuff which would limit siege spamming.
• Enough people are on the map but they don’t participate in the poll. If a (few) polls time out due to lack of participation, then fall back on ‘exhaustion’ debuff.

Today I ran to Orr to grab six pieces of armour from temple of Melandru to use the runes in WvW. After spending 252,000 karma points I found out that I cannot salvage them. With the removal of the old transmutation system, I cannot transmute over the runes to my existing armour either.

I am rather peeved at this. I was told that ANet does not wish for players to be able to convert karma to money. Fair enough! And somehow the sale of Orrian Jewellery Boxes by the same vendors is not contradictory to this wish.

Since ANet is not against personal usage of the karma items, how about making the runes account bound and not giving anything else from salvaging them? Or at the very least, a “Not salvageable!” text in the item description?

Staff guardian. Press 1 to tag and occasionally press other buttons if you feel like it.

• Jedbacca ( [SF] on JQ): the most well rounded commander I have come across
• Tarkus (former [MERC] on JQ, currently [OnS] on BG): open field
• Nausarous Rex (former [Aco] on JQ, currently [ONE] on SoS): open field
• Indevar ([TKG] on JQ): open field
• Cloud Fly: the silent guardian of JQ

Some basic traits a commander must have:

• Communication: clear and concise commands. Do not be silent. Instead of players casting randomly these commanders combine their skills into a single attack that can simultaneously strip/corrupt boons, cause conditions, stun, bind, interrupt, and down enemies in one hit.
• Calm: do not rage when things go bad or PuGs do not listen. Do not blame others for your stupid calls. Acknowledge them and learn from them.
• Awareness: do not get tunnel visioned. Constantly scan the field for potential advantages and disadvantages such as choke points, siege, flanking routes, etc.
• Confidence: do not sound uncertain as it damages morale. When you make a decision, give the command and follow through. Act confident (not arrogant) even if in doubt.
• Class Knowledge: have some awareness of what each class can do. Call for certain skills as you see fit. For example, mesmers and necros can deal with enemy boons; eles and guards can mass CC/interrupt, etc.

Two definite bugs and one possible one:

• Gathering Iron Ore while in Tornado mode (Elementalist elite) gives Ruined Ore despite using Orichalcum picks. [Did not test with other resource nodes/types.]
• While in queue for WvW, I was in EotM. The EotM match reset and I was kicked out to PvE zone. My position in queue got moved to last [or rather very far back].
• Pulling enemies off the structure walls: they disappeared. First I assumed it may have been a Thief with Descent of Shadows or Last Refuge; however, this happened later to a pulled Guardian and also a Mesmer (separate occasions).

I do agree with bannering of Lords being a tad silly.

However, you are complaining about a 21 min fight at a Garrison? I can recall a 40+ min Bay fight from top of my head. Those fights are what I hope for in WvW when I can’t be bothered solo roaming.

Proposal Overview & Goal

• Make fighting more rewarding and give lower population servers a fighting chance.

Proposal Functionality
Place a chained titan (similar in size to Cliffside fractal guy) at the centre of each borderland. The bloodlust nodes are replaced by seals that connect through massive chains to the titan’s feet, arms, and neck. Each server aims to free the titan to fight on their side. Killing players has a chance to drop vials of blood that can be looted and poured onto the seals. Each seal requires a certain amount of blood to be broken. The chance of blood vial drop scales inversely with the server’s current population on the map: higher population gives lower chance. In order to free the titan a server must break all five seals. The same seal can be broken by different servers independently (similar to each player having their own version of the loot). When pouring the blood onto the seals, the player can choose to contribute towards breaking the seal or instead hinder (capped resistance) the efforts of their opponents (indiscriminate). The progress of a server’s attempt at freeing the titan is hidden from their enemies. Once a seal is broken by a server, it remains so for that server until the titan is free. Once the titan is free, it is shown on the map to all servers by a colour coded icon and also all seals are locked for all servers. The state of seals on all servers resets once the titan falls in battle upon which he is chained up again. Once the titan falls, he remains dormant for a period of time before players are allowed to free him again. Blood vials can drop even if the titan is not available for release (can stockpile blood vials and rush titan release).

When the titan is freed, he is invulnerable to all damage for a period of time but susceptible to slow and speed buff. While the titan is invulnerable it can only attack structures. The only valid structures are the three keeps on each borderland. Upon release, the titan can be commanded during a short time window by players from the server that freed him from anywhere on the map (right click on his icon) to attack a valid enemy keep (democratic). Once this window is over, the titan cannot be commanded. If the titan is given a valid keep to attack, he will move towards it and aim to reach the lord of the keep. If no valid target has been given, the titan will pick a keep at random, which could belong to the server that freed him. This is to prevent servers from controlling every keep and preventing their opponents from feeing the titan. They can still slow down the release of the titan as stated above.

The titan is slow moving but EXTREMELY effective at bringing down keep walls/doors. The titan can and will attack all siege weapons in a radius around him while simultaneously attacking walls/doors. If the titan breaches the inner wall/door of the keep OR the invulnerability buff runs out, he becomes susceptible to damage. Once the titan becomes susceptible to damage, he becomes permanently hostile to everyone: NPCs and players from all servers; and ignores the command that he was given. Furthermore, the titan receives permanent movement speed buff, and enrage stacks that refresh periodically. Each damaging attack removes one enrage stack. Make the titan a force to be reckoned with. The titan will not and should not give a free keep to those who released him, they have to earn it.

If the titan is not killed and there are no players around, he will move capture the keep for himself, and after some time, move towards another keep of his choosing. When the titan is ready to move to another keep, he will lock the current keep from being captured until the titan is killed.

The states of the titan are as follows: when released from chain, he is still weak and those who released him can command him. The titan quickly regains enough strength to not accept command from anyone. Once the command that was given to the titan is fulfilled or a certain amount of time passes, the titan regains its free will and full strength. It is quite kittened at being chained up.

Associated Risks
I have tried to remove the possibility of abuse from the implementation of this proposal. However, it is likely that I have missed something. The titan is meant to give servers a helping hand in overcoming their opponents’ siege and not to give a free ticket to capture keeps. By rewarding a little extra the server with the lower map presence, this proposal aims to even out population imbalances to some degree. The chance of blood vial drop has to be implemented rather carefully. A limit on how many times a server can command the titan per day (they can release as many times as they like) may be necessary. The bloodlust nodes do not very actively affect WvW and as such are mostly ignored. The titan cannot be ignored.

Hobbitz.5831:

…
The attitudes of IRON, TW and FEAR are what crippled this server. Instead of embracing new players that came with the leagues, they told them to go kitten off. If you weren’t super, ultra elite you couldn’t even be on the same map as them or they’d verbally assault you over Teamspeak for hours then ban you when they got bored.
…

There was a guild ([RQ])that had transferred to JQ and possessed this attitude. They were told by the community to kitten off. They did. They were not missed.

From PvE point of view:

Hold The Line: use when lots of damage coming in but no risk of one-shot-down attacks, e.g. dredge fractal mobs.
Retreat: use when need to run or when need to prevent death from one-shot-down attacks, e.g. Mossman.

I would go with Strife’s anchor build if new to guardian: 0-0-30-30-10 with knight’s armour (soldier runes) and berserker trinkets.

If you are experienced, I’d go with 15-15-0-20-10 with the remaining 10 points dependent on your play style. I personally run with 15-15-0-30-10 which I borrowed from a friend. With this latter build you will run everything berserker with scholar runes.

I run both dungeons and high level fractals with guard.

Regardless of which build you decide to go with, you must do your duty as a guardian and not be a confused warrior wannabe. For this reason you must bring party support in the form of condi removal, blinds, reflects, etc.

I had made a post regarding a similar topic a while back which can be found here.

Any build that says use these specific weapons and utilities only can be disregarded. Fights are different across different fractals and, often, within individual fractals. You need to adapt: change weapons, armour, utilities and sometimes even traits [although keeping the same distribution as otherwise it will prove too tedious].

Thief is not an easy class to play in high level fractals. You have to be awake at all times as most things will down you in 1-2 shots. You heavily rely on your team mates: a good team allows you to be amazing while a bad one will make you regret bringing a thief.

I do not know how one would categorise them into ‘best’ and ‘worst’ but my:

• favourite is the Grawl/Volcanic Fractal. The boss fight in this fractal is exhilarating. It can punish without mercy if you make a mistake but at the same time you can take a moment of respite if needed.

• I disliked the Underwater Fractal because of the boss fight [too long and boring] and the Kraits [not the three groups you have to fight but the ones you have to avoid]. They have changed the boss fight so this fractal is no longer disliked.

Loathe to admit it but I must add my complain here regarding the duo. Earlier, it took us 2 hours and too many wipes to kill them in fractal 49.

• While I am perfectly fine with being one-shotted, I would like a chance to avoid such an end. The molten berserker spams the shockwave too often. When he’s enraged, he generate 4 shockwaves in quick successions. Dodging over all of them is not possible so you have to jump over some. However, with my Australian ping of 350ms (on a very good day) which can go up to 600ms at times, it is impossible to avoid being hit by the shockwaves. The shockwaves cannot be blocked either.

• The berserker teleports way too often. It may be better for his health if he walks a little more while giving breathing space to us players.

• Fire guy cheats too much: he puts the fire circle precisely where you’ll end up and there is not much time to react to all of them [again the ping]. Either give a slightly longer time to react or make it less ‘cheaty’!

I enjoy difficult fights. Legendary Fire Shaman was my favourite fight in GW2 by far. The duo is difficult but not in an entirely fun way. It is frustrating.

P.S. Quite a lot of times after wiping, you respawn on the platform where the duo are. The fight immediately ensues and you have no chance to talk change of tactics or at least have everyone up before fighting. I assume this is a bug.

Linnael.1069:

DeceiverX.8361:

This is my female. She’s pretty much finished as a character. That said, my male will come later. He’s geared up, just not finished aesthetically.

I am just dying to know what leggings those are.

That would be Viper’s leggings ([&AgGAqAAA]) with CM boots ([&AgEZFgAA]).

ReverendChan.8467:

Most Adorable Necro NA,
Schnigle <3

Good sir/madam/indeterminate,

I demand proof of this claim. After all, we are beings of science and reason.

:D

I am disappointed Kasumi. Why have you not included a screenshot in the middle of BG and/or SoR zerg in there?

Norns always did. Delete and make an Asura!

Zaxares.5419:

1. Their animations (it’s all so adorably over-exaggerated)
2. Their voice acting (“And now! To destroy you!”)
3. Their ears <3

Precisely this.

I was watching a GW2 stream and an Asura was goofing around while the streamer was waiting in LA. I decided there and then that I wanted to play GW2 so went and bought the game.

The new area was meant to be used for battles but it seems the RP people have taken it over.

Mirsa.1628:

SCORE UPDATE! With some lovely frands in the Obsidian Sanctum.

I’ve seen that blue-haired pipsqueak on JQ. Kill her!!!!!!!!!!

The culmination of my vanity in GW2.

Transmutation crystals: 30+
Total makover kits: 3-4
Daggers: 5-6 months