Guild Wars 2

Based on what I’m seeing, the engineer meta build sacrifices 96 condition damage for 21% condition duration by having viper armor/weapons over sinister armor/weapons. This is before runes are added to the armor. Both use sinister trinkets. I don’t see a need to use viper trinkets.

The OP states the condition duration difference can be made up with food and runes in their first post and at least one more post. They also illustrated this in their examples of bleeds and burns where they went with Mad King or Balthazar runes respectively. Of course this isn’t effective as some of the condition duration will be wasted with consumables and you lose DPS with one of those two conditions not having an equal duration. The OP would likely use x4 Nightmare runes and x2 Trapper runes giving themselves 100 condition damage and 25% condition duration.

Those doing vipers would go with Berserker runes. This adds 175 condition damage which then puts the gap between sinister and viper at 21 condition damage. But hey! The sinister build now has 4% more condition duration.

We’ll also assume that both builds use toxic crystals, pizza, sigil of malice, and the trait line to get +33% bleed and burn duration. This alone is 73% condition duration before runes or expertise. This puts the sinister build at 21 condition damage and 4% condition duration over vipers for bleeds and burns which I said several seconds ago.

But wait. I left out something about Berserker runes. Having all 6 increases outgoing damage from conditions by 5%. That easily allows it to surpass the sinister build and only gets better when you find additional sources to increase condition damage such as infusions.

If I missed something then feel free to correct me as I’m more familiar with power builds.

Blackhearted.1264:

Ayrilana.1396:

There are other ways to improve the game engine other than update DX.

But if they wont even consider supporting, say, dx11, which at this point is near 7 years old, what makes you think they’d even consider making improvements in other ways?

Because they have been making improvements already. The issues players are having will not be fixed by GW2 upgrading to a higher DX version.

It’s still possible to gain league tier/division but it falls on RNG now. If you’re stuck on a team with some people don’t know what they’re doing, you’re not going to win no matter how hard you try unless the other team happens to be the same.

The best that I can suggest is for you to plan out how many more divisions that you need to earn in order to complete those achievements. Determine how many more that you feel that you can earn this season and then split the rest evenly between the next two. The OP likely doesn’t need to worry about this considering how far they got last season.

Just stick to doing your daily participation achievement while swapping between classes after you’ve finished a class specific achievement. You won’t progress quickly but you will still progress and without the stress of dealing with horrible groups.

Blackhearted.1264:

Well, according the the most recent AMA anet is just going to sit around and make no improvements to their engine whatsoever.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/48zlyd/im_mike_obrien_here_with_gw2_dev_team_ama/d0nwdsl

It’s incredibly disappointing that, in 2016, they still refuse to make any effort whatsoever to properly support modern hardware like most of their competition does.

There are other ways to improve the game engine other than update DX.

Unless it specifically states it contains something, you can assume that it doesn’t. In the case of an extra character slot, only the deluxe and ultimate editions had an additional character slot listed.

The character slot for veterans was on the page, I believe, prior to the release of HoT.

Or just run up top and drop down to get each one. I usually have a little more than half the timer left by the time I get the final one.

Anomaly.7612:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Anomaly.7612:

I really hope they don’t plan on releasing one a year after HoT as HoT already messed up enough as it is. The fact they’re even working on one makes me afraid that it’s going to be as much of a headache as HoT has been.

I remember a time when they said they’d never release an xpac as they didn’t believe in making people pay for them. I really wish they’d had stuck to that.

Source please. I’ve never seen that quote and I suspect you’ve misremembered.

Oh, lawd. That was years ago during beta times. So believe it or not, it’s cool. I don’t mind people thinking I’m crazy.

EDIT: Not the exact source, but it’s still a quote from Mo himself

Apparently they needed to pay some bills afterall.

Just because they decided to make an expansion doesn’t mean what they said was untrue. The gem store could very well sustain their operations but it is also important for games to grow and attract new customers which expansions do tend to do.

Akrib.4297:

Is there any way to get Viper trinkets through vendors or do they have to be crafted? It seems viper is better and easier to get than sinister trinkets , which you only get from LS2 achievements.

The ascended amulet you can get from completing the HoT Part 4 story achievements or Sabetha.
Ascended rings are a rare drop from Vale Guardian.
Ascended accessories are from Gorseval.

It’s actually 22 extra mastery points in Maguuma. The wiki page isn’t completely accurate. For example, the Itzel champion that requires the mastery awards you a mastery point the first time you kill it.

I liked this one more.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/490u3k/missed_the_ama_heres_a_summary/

They’re working on it. That doesn’t mean it will be out anytime soon.

They won’t because plans change and people will make such a big deal if they don’t meet those dates. Just look at the people who still bring up that blog about things to come in 2013.

qbalrog.8017:

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

Nobody cares…

If you like the game play it. If you do not, then go do something else.

I care. I don’t want to spend money on a game that is dying. I’d like it to have a horizon of at last 18 months.

The game is not dying. People have been claiming that it is since launch. About 3.5 years later and it’s still here.

DGraves.3720:

Ayrilana.1396:

DGraves.3720:

Ayrilana.1396:

DGraves.3720:

Seera.5916:

You’re not accounting for having the ability to have more stacks of the condition.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t wait until my 1 bleed is gone to apply another. So please, do calculations based on how people actually play the game. Not to make the numbers fit your conclusion.

The condition stacking effect can be measured and graphed as X = Y.

The maximum number of stacks you can have of a condition is equal to the product of that condition’s single stack calculation. They are completely interchangeable.

A bleed that does 100 dmg over 10s does 1,000 damage total.
A bleed that does 100 dmg at ten stacks is worth 1,000 damage.

Do it using real numbers. Also show where you are getting the 1.73 multiplier that you have used for both burning and bleeds.

( applications per second x base x condition duration x condition damage x coefficient )

One application of burning @ 5s.

Stack Method:

(1 × 5 × 1.73) x 0.155 × 1382 = 1852.92

Simplified: 8.65 × .155 × 1382

Product Method:

1x 5 × 1.73 x (0.155 × 1382) = 1852.92

Simplified: 1 × 5 × 1.73 x 107.105

If applying two in a second:

Stack:

(2 × 5 × 1.73) x 0.155 × 1382 = 3705.83

Simplified: “17.3 × .155 × 1382”

Product:

2 x 5 × 1.73 x (0.155*1382) = 3705.83

Simplified: “2 × 5 × 1.73 x 214.21”

Explanation: The parenthesis used dictate the type, the product method processes the coefficient first and then the time, the stacking method processes the time first and then the coefficient.

Since bleeding only changes the coefficient I am only going to do it once.

And again, you’re using numbers you made up and ignoring everything that I suggested that you do.

I can do an analysis of Dual Shot by Warrior as that applies two real stacks of burning, each at one second, applied every 1.19s?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dual_Shot

Otherwise asking me to just “pick one” isn’t really helpful since these numbers represent a myriad of commonly found variables mixed with genuine coefficients. Whether it’s kitten burn or bleed or torment or confusion (active and passive) or even the reaper’s chill the coefficient itself doesn’t matter and doesn’t change anything.

All that you have shown here is that you twist and misuse formulas to suit your argument. When asked to show how you got a certain multiplier, you ignore it. When asked to use real numbers and post the entire builds as you would see in game, you ignore it and continue to do what you do. The only thing that you’re doing now is cherry picking numbers, including what parts of the formula to include, in order to support your belief.

DGraves.3720:

Ayrilana.1396:

DGraves.3720:

Seera.5916:

You’re not accounting for having the ability to have more stacks of the condition.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t wait until my 1 bleed is gone to apply another. So please, do calculations based on how people actually play the game. Not to make the numbers fit your conclusion.

The condition stacking effect can be measured and graphed as X = Y.

The maximum number of stacks you can have of a condition is equal to the product of that condition’s single stack calculation. They are completely interchangeable.

A bleed that does 100 dmg over 10s does 1,000 damage total.
A bleed that does 100 dmg at ten stacks is worth 1,000 damage.

Do it using real numbers. Also show where you are getting the 1.73 multiplier that you have used for both burning and bleeds.

( applications per second x base x condition duration x condition damage x coefficient )

One application of burning @ 5s.

Stack Method:

(1 × 5 × 1.73) x 0.155 × 1382 = 1852.92

Simplified: 8.65 × .155 × 1382

Product Method:

1x 5 × 1.73 x (0.155 × 1382) = 1852.92

Simplified: 1 × 5 × 1.73 x 107.105

If applying two in a second:

Stack:

(2 × 5 × 1.73) x 0.155 × 1382 = 3705.83

Simplified: “17.3 × .155 × 1382”

Product:

2 x 5 × 1.73 x (0.155*1382) = 3705.83

Simplified: “2 × 5 × 1.73 x 214.21”

Explanation: The parenthesis used dictate the type, the product method processes the coefficient first and then the time, the stacking method processes the time first and then the coefficient.

Since bleeding only changes the coefficient I am only going to do it once.

And again, you’re using numbers you made up and ignoring everything that I suggested that you do.

Blude.6812:

Ayrilana.1396:

Not this again. Nothing has been shown to prove that HoT was a failure.

Or to prove in anyway it was a success for that matter.

Pretty much.

Not this again. Nothing has been shown to prove that HoT was a failure.

DGraves.3720:

Seera.5916:

You’re not accounting for having the ability to have more stacks of the condition.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t wait until my 1 bleed is gone to apply another. So please, do calculations based on how people actually play the game. Not to make the numbers fit your conclusion.

The condition stacking effect can be measured and graphed as X = Y.

The maximum number of stacks you can have of a condition is equal to the product of that condition’s single stack calculation. They are completely interchangeable.

A bleed that does 100 dmg over 10s does 1,000 damage total.
A bleed that does 100 dmg at ten stacks is worth 1,000 damage.

Do it using real numbers. Also show where you are getting the 1.73 multiplier that you have used for both burning and bleeds.

In fact, let’s go all out with this so you can prove once and for all that we all are wrong.

• Use Acended Viper Armor/Weapons vs Ascended Sinister Armor/Weapons
• Trinkets are all Ascended Sinister for both with a Ascended Rabid backpack
• Name which runes both will use
• Name which sigils both will use
• Name what food & utility item both will use
• What build is being used for both (traits)

Seera.5916:

You’re not accounting for having the ability to have more stacks of the condition.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t wait until my 1 bleed is gone to apply another. So please, do calculations based on how people actually play the game. Not to make the numbers fit your conclusion.

Of course he isn’t because that would mean he’s wrong. People have been trying to get this across to him for like three threads now.

Somehow I think that 1 sec bleed was intentional rather than the duration most bleeds last.

Your condition damage numbers are also low. I have 1595 condition damage using the meta engi build. The damage would be a little higher if I used an ascended backpack and infusions. Condition duration for bleeds and burning are at 94.66% with food/crystal.

There’s none on the TP. If you’re thinking it’s gone because of that then remove the “Only Show Available” filter.

DGraves.3720:

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s not about lengthening fights. It has clearly been stated to you numerous times in this thread and others that longer fights are better for viper armor due to the ramp up of conditions. I specfically told you this in the other thread you made recently. Nobody is saying that vipers is great for trash mobs that die quickly. That’s just you saying it and ignoring that part of what we said. So the only distortions here are from you.

The thing is that having a bigger number doesn’t actually mean doing better.

If you have 7 stacks of bleed at 135 you are doing better than 10 stacks at 100. You want to compress your damage, not elongate it, because then you’re wasting time. It’s just not as simple as “100% condition duration GO GO GO!” unless you can get it without giving up condition damage.

How about this. Use the damage formulas with real values and prove your argument. Just like those who have done supporting condition duration. Or make a video measuring DPS with the only variables changed being condition damage and duration. Until then, you are wrong.

When I say detailed I mean detailed. Show your calculations clearly.

And use this build which is the meta:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Condition_Raids

It’s not about lengthening fights. It has clearly been stated to you numerous times in this thread and others that longer fights are better for viper armor due to the ramp up of conditions. I specfically told you this in the other thread you made recently. Nobody is saying that vipers is great for trash mobs that die quickly. That’s just you saying it and ignoring that part of what we said. So the only distortions here are from you.

Qugi.2653:

Maybe dumb question but why not here on official forum? I am sure you wait for that question.

Larger audience on Reddit.

Tentonhammr.7849:

Thankfully we have fairly accurate DPS meter now. It should be fairly easy to whip up a quick demonstration of your hypothesis for the simpletons in this thread who cannot wrap their heads around your ideas.

I didn’t want to bump this thread but I want to say that I agree with you. Perhaps a video showing the DPS differences is necessary so we can just link it and end the discussion in all future threads. There most definitely will be more of them whether by a particular poster or someone new.

DGraves.3720:

Ayrilana.1396:

DGraves.3720:

Ayrilana.1396:

Snip

Interval trap. I already covered this. Won’t do it twice.

So you created “traps” as excuses to exclude potential arguments against your position? Oh, and that trap you mentioned excluded stacking conditions so no it did not address it.

During encounters where mobs die quickly then the benefits of condition duration would not have reached their full effect. During prolonged encounters, condition duration is better. This has been explained to you several times.

No. Actually they’re “logic traps”.

Math is a tool so fooling yourself with it is easy of you don’t wield it correctly. Those are the things that people tend to do. For instance 10s 100 dmg bleeds equalling 1,000 dps.

In this case breaking rhythm has the adverse effect of distortion. The 8s bleed goes longer at a lower rhythm than the 5s bleed but only intervals that match can be compared.

The reason this is important is ( ironically ) for long term engagements. The longer you stack and build the easier it is to fall for the trap.

The general outcome is the product trap where people multiply out the values over very long amounts of time in one dimension ( damage ) ignoring the more important dimension ( time ) and reach false conclusions.

Math appears to be a tool that you are not wielding correctly as you still are not understanding the effect of stacking conditions.

I’m think that this may be the direction that they’re moving towards. If they do make the maps for like SW, I do hope that they spread out the rewards so players are encouraged to participate for the duration of the meta rather than hop on at the last second to gain participation and then look for the next near completed map.

DGraves.3720:

Ayrilana.1396:

Snip

Interval trap. I already covered this. Won’t do it twice.

So you created “traps” as excuses to exclude potential arguments against your position? Oh, and that trap you mentioned excluded stacking conditions so no it did not address it.

During encounters where mobs die quickly then the benefits of condition duration would not have reached their full effect. During prolonged encounters, condition duration is better. This has been explained to you several times.

Since it looks like this thread is going this direction, if not already, here’s a post that I want to add. Oddly enough that post was directed at the OP in that thread.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I guess I’m going to have to start from basics. For this demonstration, I will give you a few things:

#1: There is a player
#2: Who is attacking once per second
#3: That applies a bleed once per attack
#4: That lasts for 5 seconds, base duration.

So an auto attacking like scenario. Stripped bare and with its most basic premises.. There are few things to look at. First, consider this: if we were to do one attack, that attack would take 1 second, and would inflict bleeding for 5 seconds. Thus, the overall damage that the attack would do is equal to 5 ticks of bleed, and since it takes one second to execute that attack, that is roughly equal to 5 ticks of bleed per second. This may seem a bit odd, but consider this: while that bleed is ticking away, you are capable of performing other actions at the same time, which may add more bleeds or do more damage. This can be considered the “DPS per skill use”, and it is one way of comparing damage.

But there are other ways. Taking into consideration the fact that we can perform multiple actions while a bleed is ticking away, we can use this time to apply more bleeds, using the same “5 ticks of bleed per second”. Over the period of 10 seconds, we would see this happen:

1st second: 1 bleed
2nd second: 2 bleeds
3rd second: 3 bleeds
4th second: 4 bleeds
5th second: 5 bleeds
6th second: 5 bleeds
7th second: 5 bleeds
8th second: 5 bleeds
9th second: 5 bleeds
10th second: 5 bleeds

The crucial part being that, once we reach 5 seconds, the first bleed that we applied has expired, and thus the new bleeds replace the old one. While the overall damage inflicted doesn’t go away, the DPS of this setup is going to be equivalent to the damage that 5 bleeds will do. So, if your bleed ticks for 120, you will be doing 600 DPS, or 120 × 5. This is called many things, such as the stacking limit or the stacking threshold, and it is the average amount of conditions you sustain going through a rotation. You may notice that the DPS we got from the stacking limit is equal to the DPS we got from considering the “DPS per skill” method above. That is not coincidence. The time it takes to reach this peak is the “ramp up time” for conditions.

Now, lets add in a comparison. Lets say that, instead of lasting for 5 seconds, the bleed lasts for 8 seconds. Looking at a 10 second period, we’d get the following:

1st second: 1 bleed
2nd second: 2 bleeds
3rd second: 3 bleeds
4th second: 4 bleeds
5th second: 5 bleeds
6th second: 6 bleeds
7th second: 7 bleeds
8th second: 8 bleeds
9th second: 8 bleeds
10th second: 8 bleeds

See what happened here? The bleed lasts longer, so you get more concurrent stacks of bleeding at the same time. Assuming the bleeds do 100 damage instead of 120, this means that from 8 seconds onward, you will be doing 800 damage per second, which is more than the 600 damage per second that the previous setup capped at.

You can also consider this a DPS per skill use: one attack inflicts 8 ticks of bleeding per second, and even given the weaker bleed, this means that in the long run, you will do more damage and have higher sustained DPS than the 5 second long but stronger bleeds.

Lets take the bleeds in isolation. One 5-second long bleed, and one 8-second long bleed. Lets put their total cumulative damage side by side.

1st second: 100 | 120
2nd second: 200 | 240
3rd second: 300 | 360
4th second: 400 | 480
5th second: 500 | 600
6th second: 600 | 600
7th second: 700 | 600
8th second: 800 | 600
9th second: 800 | 600

The 5 second long bleed stops doing damage at 5 seconds, and the 8 second long bleed stops doing damage at 8 seconds. What happened here is that, at 6 seconds, their cumulative damage became equal, and at 7 seconds, the longer bleed did more cumulative damage. So, even though the 8 second long bleed does more damage in the long run, it has a longer ramp up time, which means that in the short run it does less damage.

The issue that the people complaining about RNG being unfair are looking at it across a very small subset of accounts rather than an aggregate of accounts consisting of the entire playerbase.

You can have 1,000 people flip a coin. On average those who get heads achieve this 50% of the time. You’ll have maybe 20 that got it 80% of the time and another 20 that got it 20% of the time. The people complaining are focusing on those 20 on either side (40 total) rather than across the entire population of people flipping coins.

One thing that could be done is to prevent those type of items being used on launchers. I’m not sure how much effort it would require or what other issues it could present though.

Maybe have the launcher itself act as a consumable in a way so that players get the one message that prevents them from using the consumable until they go to an area further away. Kind of like you can’t have two bobble head stations in top of each other.

Or do like the no glide areas and put an area around the launchers that prevents those consumables instead.

Just remove the classes and make the game like a FPS. Make 1 offensive armor set, 1 defensive armor set, and 1 hybrid armor set. Stats on all three are fixed (i.e. Only three stat combos total between the three). There… 100% balanced. Everyone is now the same.

And no, I’m not seriously suggesting this.

You can turn off the Windows 10 spying if it’s a big deal.

I thought that chests and such had priority over those items. It’s like how someone can out down a cauldron when doing the SW chest train but interacting with the chest had priority over interacting with the cauldron.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

At least you’ve got a chair. So you can sit and watch the hedge(s). :/

Oh wait….

Blackhearted.1264:

It’s an indisputable fact though, that directx 12, and to a lesser degree, 11, is faster than directx 9. To try to say it isn’t is just foolish. As is to try to say the games performance would not improve at all if they bothered to do it.

Sure, it’s faster. It doesn’t mean it’ll have any significant impact on the performance issues that people are having in the game.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3ajnso/bad_optimalization_in_gw2/csdnn3n

RedBaron.6058:

Sartharina.3542:

RedBaron.6058:

Yes, definitely, accounts have an associated RNG, better in some and worst in others.

But only insofar as the Luck Stat is concerned. Two accounts with identical Luck Points have identical RNGs

No, no…what I mean is that accounts have their own initial RNG when they are created plus the lucky points they get during play time.

No. This theory has been disproved time and time again.

mauried.5608:

RNGs arnt fair

They’re fair in the sense that everyone is treated exactly the same. Those players who get 20+ precursors, everyone else in the game has exactly the same chance of being those players. The same can be said about those who play for 10K+ hours without a precursor drop. Everyone has the same chance of being one of them too.

Odd that he gets notifications like that when I normally get something like the following:

Your post in (thread name) was removed because it quoted a post that was deleted by a moderator. This notification is intended only to inform you of why your post was removed. The removal does not result in any points of penalties and does not affect your forum account in any way.

That’s all that’s in the message. Why the difference?

People do buy them so they likely are not overvalued.

Aarean.5398:

Where is it posted that 300,000 was the attained sales to date? Ill take anything posted as long as it isnt some random forum.

NCSoft earnings report. They extrapolated it based on what the stable gem sales figure would be.

maddoctor.2738:

Ayrilana.1396:

maddoctor.2738:

Ayrilana.1396:

The rate isn’t too bad though.

For you maybe, for me the rate is terrible. I haven’t gotten a single collection from pods in DS yet and I’ve opened LOADs of pods while the collection was active. I always get my components from the final chest of the meta. It’s really annoying that you have to do the meta twice to get, one to buy the plated weapon and then one more time to get the component, because even if you buy the plated armor before you loot the chest, you won’t get the component.

Still, 2 DS metas per collection is much faster than playing the terrible RNG of the pods.

Pods spawn in each of the lanes and don’t require you to do the meta.

There will be players who have very bad luck and those that have very good luck.

I know pods spawn outside of the meta but if I did 3 full metas, opened every single pod I could find and still got nothing, then there is a serious problem with the “rate”.

I know. It’s like this with every single “item in a box” so far for me. My high score is 210 lockpicks without a single Ambrite Fossil drop, yes I COUNTED them all. That was the main reason I gave up on Dry Top as a zone completely. Fortunately, for the Machined collection I can get it with 100% chance from the final chest which is awesome for people like me that the RNG doesn’t like at all.

Also, I’ve been farming chests in TD (8 chests on my path, I know there are more) on 4 characters very often, that’s about 32 chests per day…. Needless to say my drop rate is abysmal there too.

So excuse me if I have a problem when someone says “the rate isn’t bad”, my experience from anything that is inside any type of chest is just terrible.

No need to be defensive. I wasn’t trying to dismiss what you’ve been experiencing as far as drop rates. It’s just you’re on what is likely the very unlucky end of the spectrum whereas a player, on average, would have much better luck. Could something be done for those who are expecting what you have been? Possibly.

maddoctor.2738:

Ayrilana.1396:

The rate isn’t too bad though.

For you maybe, for me the rate is terrible. I haven’t gotten a single collection from pods in DS yet and I’ve opened LOADs of pods while the collection was active. I always get my components from the final chest of the meta. It’s really annoying that you have to do the meta twice to get, one to buy the plated weapon and then one more time to get the component, because even if you buy the plated armor before you loot the chest, you won’t get the component.

Still, 2 DS metas per collection is much faster than playing the terrible RNG of the pods.

Pods spawn in each of the lanes and don’t require you to do the meta.

There will be players who have very bad luck and those that have very good luck.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Only 300,000 bought HoT, so by now the maximum playerbase isn’t going to be much higher than that, considering the power creep and how much they nerfed core.

And F2P players?

HazyDaisy.4107:

Honestly, if you’re searching for any of those parts found in noxious pods, but also drop from the end chest, it seems to be better and cheaper just to wait for the end chest rather than take a gamble with the noxious pods.

Maybe my RNG is aweful, but twice now I’ve used more than half my available machetes (more than 30 each time) and loads of time searching for the shield item and the GS item. While a friend gets his hammer item on the third noxious pod. It’s crazy! For the gs I spent 2 hours farming on my guardian and got nothing, then I came back with my necro and got it on the 5th pod. I thought maybe I’d have better luck opening pods with the weapons intended class. Now Im working on the druid Staff, so I started with 40 machetes and my ranger…40 machetes later my theory isn’t holding water. To boot, my friend got his hammer item on a ranger…

And yes, each time, including my friends experience it was the only collection active and the last thing needed to complete the collection.

You’re on the unlucky end of the spectrum it seems. I unlocked all of the collections at once and got everything within 3 or so runs. I’m sure the average is somewhere between our experiences.

Nash.2681:

Ayrilana.1396:

[…]

You only need to salvage one piece of ascended armor or one ascended weapon to get enough dark energy to complete the first collection. Every collection after that can be completed by salvaging the backpack you craft and using the dark energy obtained.

Other than that, I’m not against gating skins by skill level. That would actually be something I hope they start doing more of and specfically in regards to individual player skill.

Just a slight correction to not spread missinformation about the Ad Infinitum thingy- you actually need 2 balls to start off, one for the collection itself to trade in at the aetherblade guy and another to build the first backpiece itself
Since we seem to agree on the other stuff, no need to argue here

Yeah. I may have salvaged an amulet or gotten more than 1 from the weapon which probably is rare.

Nash.2681:

Ayrilana.1396:

Nash.2681:

John Smith.4610:

Every account has the exact same chance on RNG.

Granted and accepted. But this doesn’t explain why you guys still stick to this kitten concept. I remember this very thread where we were called to discuss about rng as a concept, still everything is tied to RNG. Even more so when it’s possible to get some of the most valuable items (precursors) for the least challenging content (killing trash mobs in open world).
An no, I do not consider precursor crafting as a relief here. A mindless grindfest that simply doubles the cost for a legendary is no compensation for those cursed by rngsus.

You would either have RNG or a method that would be a grind. If items were any easier then everyone would have items sooner and there would be nothing for them to work towards. Imagine if you were able to obtain every skin in the game through casual play within a year and every skin released after that with not so much effort.

This is an MMO, and like other MMO’s, there’s RNG and grind. Fortunately, in GW2, this grind isn’t required as it’s just for cosmetic items only as no content is locked behind a grind except for high level fractals. Even then, you’re not experiencing anything different than you did for the previous levels.

Well, you got some points, but the thing is- at one the only thing GW2 offers is just cosmetics since the overall content quantity is quite limited and for almost everyone further cut down by personal preferences (e. g. some don’t like to PvP, others won’t do world completion/story on every character, etc.).
I’m all for having to put some effort in obtaining desired/rare skins, but to me, the effort should be skill based. Unfortunatly, the current situation is almost exactly what you describe- every skin in the game can be obtained through casual play, even legendaries since the hardest part to get (precursor) can be obtained by everyone, either by luck (killing yellow creatures, 4 rares in the mystic toilett) or numbing grind (precursor collection).
Even the Ad Infinitum backpiece ain’t that hard to obtain as long as you’re either lucky (asc. drops to salvage for balls) or grind (to craft asc. gear to salvage for balls).

Only somewhat exception of this rule might become the legendary armor since it’s tied to raids.

Silmar Alech nailed it down (which was also part of the before mentioned rng discussion thread):

[…] Players want a manipulated rng. A rng that smooths out too many losses and too many successes, so in the end everyone gets the same share of success within his play time. […]

A slight variation of this, coupled with the requirement of actual player skill for the more rare/desireable skins, would be a better distribution system then the current one imo.

You only need to salvage one piece of ascended armor or one ascended weapon to get enough dark energy to complete the first collection. Every collection after that can be completed by salvaging the backpack you craft and using the dark energy obtained.

Other than that, I’m not against gating skins by skill level. That would actually be something I hope they start doing more of and specfically in regards to individual player skill.

ShinyDay.5349:

Ansau.7326:

13 pages and people still think the api is the issue…

It is … DX9 doesn’t support hyperthreading and that’s why GW2 won’t ever use more than 50% of my CPU. with DX11, client would be able to use 100% of CPU and GPU, so that would increase FPS.
I get it that this game is CPU hungry, but it’s dumb that it can only use 50% of my CPU.

For i7/xenon CPU users that would bring nice amount of performance.

Going to a higher DX version won’t do what you think it will. I would check into what it actually does and what is required for any features to be used.

If squads function at all like parties, it does help you with tags. Most of the time you only need to tap something to get credit whereas you would have to had to do a certain amount of damage, killed a certain number of mobs, or whatever.

arkaxify.3258:

Just block them and you’re good.

The problem is that there are so many. I was sitting in Rata Sum and had received messages from 7 of them within a span of 5 min.

You get keys more often as map rewards than before.