Guild Wars 2

Lilith Ajit.6173:

On spinal blades, when i mentioned it in game bugs, this is a response:

Meetshield.1756:

Clearly it not binding was a bug, and if you were Exploiting…. You might not want to post that on here…

Just saying..

Can you believe this? It’s a whole new level.

I had to add a little somethign to your spinal blades inquiry to give those people somtehing to think about.

Let’s just say I had an idea what Lilith meant and asked her to explain it via pm because it might not be well suited for the open forum and leave it at that.

Just to add a small notion, there are actually pieces of equipment of exotic grade that stay accountbound if equipped like the Ancient Karka Shell or the Sclerite Karka Shell so it was a possibility that this applied to the spinal blades as well.

Call me dumb or a non-native english speaker, Lilith, but… excuse me? Care to explain that to me?

Edit: Deleted that last line.. Better for everyone I suppose. Today is not a good day to be me it seems…

Lindbur.2537:

She must really dig my fat pink norn.

It hast to be the pink. In my experience Mai Trin has a tendency to go after our mesmers while leaving my big hulking norn well alone.

This is amazing.
But now I’m terrified to link your video to a friend – he doesn’t usually read the english forum – because he has an unfortunate tendency towards quagganification and if he learns he can actually fight like that he’ll hassle anyone of us who has an elementalist to log onto those to feed him conjured weapons.

I assume you refer to a group that has little to no description other than the path with “unmarked”?
If so then most of them aren’t exactly meta-speedruns in my experience. They are most often however people who just want a quick dungeon run for the reward and as such utilize the same tactics (including skipping in tactics here) a speedrun uses to some degree (and with various success).
There is a distinction between a speedy run and an actual (meta-)speedrun.

I agree those spreedy runs seem to be the default expectation and most people either don’t care or don’t think to advertise their group properly.
Actual (meta-)speedruns in my experience seem to more often than not clearly state so in their lfg description.

It would help tremendously if people advertised their lfg matchup more clearly. But I have to admit that I am guilty of just putting the path in often enough myself and assuming from experience that a “speedy run” is the default.
The problem in my case however is, if I put “speedy run” in the description, most people would assume I mean a (meta-)speedrun. And those I rarely do actually.
And the people joining me would be mostly annoyed that they were “mislead” by my description.

I don’t see an easy solution other than to take some time to look for likeminded people, build a guild or a solid friendslist and go from there. Because there actually is no “default” way to do a dungeon. Unless you define what most people do as a default. And even then you would be required to make a large enough survey to find out what most people actually do.

I can finally dare to go back into dungeons. Yay!

I accidentally… cleaned? (yes, let’s go with cleaned) my keyboard with a large amount of sparkling mineral water and my backup was way more different than I expected/remembered.
Felt like the time I got back to ice skating after a years long break.

At least now any mistakes I make can be soley blamed on my skill and not technically induced challenge modes.

Since according to my monthly achievements the Lion’s Arch event constitutes as a dungeon, I can actually post this here without a fit of guilty conscience.

Lindbur.2537:

I did go ahead with the kitty… :>

That looks really great!

Most people aren’t complaining about the fix per se I think. Some are, because they liked the double edged sword aspect of the potions because they perfectly fit the risk/reward theme in that.
Most however complain about the timing of the implementation and the implications of said implementation, I think.
I at least fall into the latter category.

Is it helpful that I think the Kitty design you posted above looks really nice?
(This coming from someone who has every race in his roster except for charr. I just can’t get used to a lot of their animations. All my charr ended up going the way of the dodo. None of them made it past 31…)

Char.4209:

FenrirSlakt.3692:

Buffs are lost upon map change, therefore it does makes sense that it occurs.

I know, buffs like bloodlust or applied fortitude are lost by mapchange, because you could create an unfair advantage, but not with this Item.
Bufffood or boosters are not affected by it.

And nothing else is lost by using plague

I guess this is the same problem that you describe for quaggan or guild banner tonics. Most likely the selfless and thoughtless potions’ effects fall under transformation-effects.
That would mean any other form of transmutation will cancel them as well, like an elementalist’s Tornado or a necromancer’s Lich Form. Even Tome of Wrath or Tome of Courageof a guardian might end the effect, because it counts as a transformation as well in some cases.
And those are just a few examples. There are multiple other transformation effects among the various professions elites and from various other sources ingame.
Have you tried with any of those other options? I believe the Lich Form shoould be easy enough to try for you if you noticed it with plague.

The sad part is that you can actually feel lucky it happened this early in the dungeon Having your instance destroyed further into the run is more annoying by far and happens more often than anyone could wish for.

Basically it boils down that the host system requires a revamp, but there are already a shipload of topics open regarding that problem.

As someone who has more than once decided against buying a full set of armour because I only needed one or two pieces and the rest would only clutter my bank space, I wholeheartedly agree with this Idea.

I’m not sure wether 150 gems are applicable or too low but nevertheless, being able to purchase only parts of the gemstore armour sets would be greatly appreciated.

deSade.9437:

I challenge you to see me playing guardian full melee in fractals. You won’t feel as bad about your skills afterwards.
_That_ is real pain.

I recently eliminated my last 10 points of valor for strength in numbers from my fractal hammer build. (Selfish me ignoring the 150 extra toughness for my group for more condition removal going 20 into Virtues.)
I had thought I was past the 250 exta toughness and the additional free aegis at 50%.
Welllllllll, to quote my favourite necro "I’m not used to you going down that much".
*sniff*
Apparently I was wrong.

We need a new living story dungeon. That might give at least the flawed host-system enough exposure to get adressed.
Although even the TA Aetherblade path didn’t get that done and the number of ragequits in that was incredible in the beginning, so I might guess wrong.

If the vote is open for the public, I vote for howler.

If we’ve learned anything from one of the two contestants for the master race spot in GW2 it is that shiniez are of the utmost importance!
(I you are confused: I’m talking about Skritt of course.)

Ayrilana.1396:

No. I’d rather be able to pick my dungeons and people I play with rather than have e everything randomized.

I also question your progress within the game as you mentioned tanks, healers, etc which this game does not have.

You are aware that the OP stated that the system wouldn’t have to care about tanks and healers because GW2 doesn’t have those? Just to adress your last point.

As for your first point, I’m with you on that, I prefer to have a choice in what I do.

@ OP:
Another problem with a randomized dungeons election would be the time availlable for people.
Sometimes you just want to grab a quick dungeon run because your schedule doesn’t allow for a longer one. So you pick one that is fast as opposed to one that can take 3 times the time. If you only have the randomized version, that wouldn’t be possible anymore.

If you are advocating the randomized version in addition to the current system that would eliminate this problem. But I honestly have no idea how bit the demand/interest for those runs would be.
Since it’s a personal preference however, I can’t really argue for or against the idea. The developement team would have to gauge the interest in something like that beforehand to deicde wether to allocate the necessary resources. But since there is no longer a dungeon developement team as far as we know, I don’t think that is something that’s going to happen anytime soon.

Edit: Typos.

Cotser.7015:

Indeed, if you’re a new player you will struggle with your first dungeon, that’s pretty much a given.
top suggestions are: use gear that is the exact same level as your level, in a dungeon where you’re not level 80, your gear scales oddly, so if your gear is level 25 and you’re level 30, you’re severely crippling yourself,
My advice, don’t bother with story modes, not worth it unless you want to unlock explorable mode.

Unless you’re interested in the story about destiny’s edge getting back together. In that case story dungeons are more or less a must have if you want to be part of it ingame.

That aside: I think your advice about the gear is a particularly good one.
But even if that is not an option for whatever reasons, storymodes usually aren’t that difficult, AC included.
It will come a s a surprise to new players how hard some mobs can actually hit you if you never stumbled across an upscaled open world event – which can happen depending on which starting zone you originated from or a less populated server – but even that is managable after a few tries.

If you read a few more threads you’ll realize that the majority of the zerk/meta-speedrunners actually would prefer if they got more challenging content.
Or why do you think so many of them do runs with self-imposed challenges like fewer players than allowed by the dungeon, running without armor or similar?

As it is now the fondness of stacking results from the way the content is designed at the moment and people farming it for the rewards.
Dish out challenging content and you’ll hear cries of joy from the regular dungeon crowd.

It might be however, that they were working on a fix to be released with this new batch of slaying potions for a while now actually. And someone just forgot to implement it in the first release.
While I to happen to fall into the camp that believes it got hotfixed because it is part of a living story release, what I wrote above at least is a possibility.
Either way, even if it was a fix that was scheduled/planned some time ago, it again sends a rather clear message: unless it’s part of the living story, don’t hold your breath for things pve wise.

So after looking at patchnotes and the dungeon forum, it seems that not only the new anti-Scarlet-troops slaying potions got fixed, but all of them, making them no longer a double edged sword.
For those unclear about what I’m talking about: before the fix they did not only increase the damage dealt but also the damage received as opposed to reduce the damage received.

So first of all: Thank you for fixing this. May little artificing flower is truly happy with her newfound popularity among my dungeon running characters.

But to add a small grain of salt: The bug was known for, how long now? 4 months? And nothing happened.
Did it take that long to dig out the root of the problem to create a fix and it was just ready with the new slaying potions for the living story? If so, the rest of my post can be ignored.

If not, well, was it just so low on the priority list and just jumped to the top when it became a problem connected to a living story release? In that case it would have taken less than 24 hours to fix a months old problem.

As I said I’m truly grateful and happy that this finally has been adressed. But if the latter assumption is true, that leaves a somewhat bitter aftertaste in my mouth because it clearly shows how secondary some aspects of the game might be treated compared to living story.

Aveneo.2068:

So basically you have to buy the recipe for 5g in order to craft a consumable item that allows others to get a buff?

Originally it felt decent until I saw the mats. For the Sharpening Stone Station you need 1 Bloodstone Brick, 30 Pile of Crystalline Dust and 5 Deldrimor Steel Ingot!

So I am just going to ignore these recipes and keep using my own personal versions.

Basically, your last sentence sums it up nicely from an individual standpoint. The stations aren’t meant for individuals or small groups.
They are meant for medium to large scale groups, like a guild doing a guild challenge, an organized guild group in WvW and similar occasions.

In addition, with the way new world bosses seem to be designed (read: requiring a large number of coordinated players), those stations come in handy from that point of view.
The only flaw in regard to the new world bosses is, that in a lot of cases the groups participating in those are clustered together from individuals and smaller groups, so almost no one (me included, I’ll freely admit) will put up a station, because unlike in a guild event there simply won’t be the number of people who might chip in to compensate for the high price.
Plus with the slaying potions seemingly fixed, for Tequatl at least, the undead slaying potion will be more useful anyway, I guess.
(And was already, even with the bug induced drawback they had until now.)

cranos.5913:

[…]

Oh come on, you run till you’re allmost at the first boss, pop some reflects and the bombers kill themselves. Almost every PUG knows this by now and do the path often.

I think Harper refers to another fix than the pipe jumping before the first boss.

After the first boss most skip groups I encountered jumped down to the spiders, crossed the bridge, banked hard left and walked along a very slim ledge, jumped down to the ramp with the destroyer patrol and circled back up to attack the boss with the fire circles directly, ignoring the mobs on the ramp after the bridge and the bridge fight itself.
That ledge is no longer traversable as far as I know.
So you’ll either have to do the bridge fight and the mobs afterwards before the boss or you might still try to run straight past all those mobs, past the boss and circle counter clockwise down the ramp you usually come up to shake the mobs. I’ve never tried the latter, so I can’t actually answer wether that works or not. But even if it does work it makes the part you have to skip much longer and the risk of someone going down or dying trying to do so is much greater.

yayuuu.9420:

Silberfisch.3046:

How many times have you done CoE p3 with stacking Alpha wheneverything worked out fine? As compared to the one example where stacking did not work?
And the next question would be, why did it not work? Failed dodge timing? People not freed from crystals fast enough because that actually works better in a stack? Teeth of Primordus hitting those trying to stack or causing them to run out of endurance for other dodges because people not meleeing him provoked those?
All those are likely possibilities and at least one of those maybe even two were actually provoked by not stacking.

I never did it with stacking. As a stack-hater, I would rather leave party than stack.

That answers my first question, but not the others as to why the stacking people died. But to prevent digressing even further, I’ll go back to the original problem:

Given your example, I have to ask, when 3 or even 4 people attempt to stack, why didn’t you leave, if you hate stacking so much?
Why try and impose your playstyle on the majority of the group who were about to do it differently?
And this ultimately is the problem I had with the OP as well: Why not make your own group with a simple “no stacking” and/or “no skipping” tag?
Unless you believe you won’t get enough interested players, there’s no reason not to.
In your example, you’re even worse than the OP by far.
Instead you try to force other people to come around and play the way you want opposed as to the way they want.

Just find likeminded people. Let those that wish to skip and stack do so. And play with those that share the same philosophy as you. Problem solved.

And before you say that people force you to play their style. Well speedclears will always skip/stack, so don’t join them so no ones forcing you to do anything.
And a group that doesn’t advertise their intentions in the lfg tag? Ask them before the dungeon starts what they intend to do.
If they want to skip/stack ask politely if they would consider to do it a different way. If the general consensus is “no” then do as you stated: leave the group and look for another.
We’re talking about a group of people here and the only sensible way with 5 total strangers is a majority vote about how to do things. And if you can’t abide by the result of that vote then there is no place for you in that particular group.
Otherwise it will most likely degenerate into a very unenjoyable experience for everyone.

Iris Ng.9845:

I need to confess. I have strayed from the way of dungeons, and embraced WvW lovingly at 4 AM. It was fun. I may become addicted.

:\

Then you might want to check the announcements they made for season 2. They looked quite promising.
That is, if your thesis allows you the time for that. Best of luck with that btw.

Also, I miss the old thread. there was so much fun gold in there.

MastaNeenja.1537:

Hmm I think you’re on to something but we need to go a step further and remove dodging all together. How does a half cartwheel dodge anything? Talk about breaking immersion! If they get rid of dodging or at the very least significantly reduce the number of dodges a player has access to then players wouldn’t be able to stack in zerker gear, they’d have to use clerics to support each other.

I like the sarcasm in this one.

The best part is that both these arguments, when made by the anti-stacking fraction – and actually meant that way – are negated by other parts of the anti-stacking fractiong.

The “I’m all about active play so I’m against stacking”-faction should rebuke this proposal vehemently. How is limiting dodges promoting active play?

Also: If you talk clerics to support each other, you are talking heling abilities. But oh no! 85% of those work with a rather limited range on them, pretty often only melee range. So unless you huddle up, supporting each other won’t really work. And by huddle up I mean stacking.
Sooo, not helpfull when arguing against stacking.

And just to be clear again: I got the sarcasm, I just couldn’t resist to add my 2 cents.

yayuuu.9420:

Silberfisch.3046:

We could argue that this should not be the default way as opposed to actually exploring a dungeon. But that only works the first few times and then prople will try and speed it up because once the novelty of exploration has worn off most people will do it for the rewards.
And I would hazard a guess that the majority of the playerbase has moved to the second stage so they will try to save time. Which will make stacking/skipping to a certain degree the default. Simply defined by the majority of the players.
I’ll admit this is also an assumption. And feel free to point this out to me as I have done with yours.

I did COE p3 run without stacking and only me and one guardian survived subject alpha. I was in party with players, who did this dungeon many times already, but with stacking. If you were right, they would be experienced enought to survive without stacking. After that I have asked them and they have never done it without stacking (the guardian too).

I would hazard a guess, that majority of the playerbase have never done dungeons without stacking and that they just mindlessly repeat what other players have showed them. Most of them doesn’t even know about the true reasons why everyone is doing it in the corners and not in the middle of the room (FGS Fiery Rush exploit and some more).

It’s fun how you edited the quote. If you had quoted the full thing, you could have saved yourself most of your last paragraph. To remind you:

The only thing I can get behind is the notion that a ccertain amount of skipping and stacking is the default way people do dungeons. Even if it is quite often executed in a way that actually makes it more dangerous or time consuming because people either aren’t experienced enough at it or have seen it elsewhere an do it for the entirely wrong reasons.
We could argue that this should not be the default way as opposed to actually exploring a dungeon. But that only works the first few times and then prople will try and speed it up because once the novelty of exploration has worn off most people will do it for the rewards.
And I would hazard a guess that the majority of the playerbase has moved to the second stage so they will try to save time. Which will make stacking/skipping to a certain degree the default. Simply defined by the majority of the players.
I’ll admit this is also an assumption. And feel free to point this out to me as I have done with yours.

A prime example is Kohler. A lot of people LoS him behind the pillar next to the ramp like rubble wall piece. True it’s easy to back him into that corner but it will also most likely kill most of your group if you run squishy builds/equipment because due to the camera angle and effect storm in that corner you’ll have a hard time to see the telegraph of his pull. So neither dodging nor reflecting the pull will work because you’ll never see it coming. And most professions simply won’t suvive the whirlwind attack if they aren’t geared for toughness/vitality.
Stacking how it should not be done.

Another example I like to use is Alphard. Since you can no longer reflect the scorpion wire, you’ll have to dodge it to avoid instant downs for a lot of party members. It has a clear tell and unless you have the worst of an effect storm (guardian flames hooray) you can see and dodge it. But it makes stacking acutally more risky at that point because more people have to time their dogde properly. It’s still the quickest and most efficient way to kill him though if executed correctly. (For all those people who think stacking is always easymode.)
Also Alphard is a prime example why LOSing can’t possibly be an exploit. Try to fight Alphard without hiding behind the crates during his dagger storm. You’ll quickly realize what I mean.
Of course some classes can simply outrange him and use extreme range to avoid his attacks, but really how is stacking and LoSing against a mob an exploit but negating him any avenue of attack by outranging him isn’t?
Edit: Btw. in my book neither of those three are actually an exploit. Unless you do it to glitch out the boss in some way.

Plus I try to avoid to use single examples as representation of a whole. How many times have you done CoE p3 with stacking Alpha wheneverything worked out fine? As compared to the one example where stacking did not work?
And the next question would be, why did it not work? Failed dodge timing? People not freed from crystals fast enough because that actually works better in a stack? Teeth of Primordus hitting those trying to stack or causing them to run out of endurance for other dodges because people not meleeing him provoked those?
All those are likely possibilities and at least one of those maybe even two were actually provoked by not stacking.

Espionage.3685:

Silberfisch.3046:

…At least the zerker/meta-playstyle (the bullies, remember) are socially aware enough to communicate what they expect from their fellow group members.

During the first few dungeons I did, I thought “why is everyone stacking in one spot”. I wasn’t told anything, and just followed it (I figured it was a rare occurrence).

There was one dungeon where somebody explained in-detail where to stack and run. That run also had plenty of partial and full-group wipes due to trying to run past stuff, along with taking over an hour to do (want to say close to two hours).

And note, I was also joining non-speed run groups too (so I wasn’t even aware ahead of time that there would be stacking nor skipping, aside from what to expect from previous experience). The social aspect you speak of is hardly there, except for a few rare instances, that I’ve seen anyway.

Shiny, how you took that line out of context.

You said you did not join a run advertised as speedclear/zerker/meta/similar-things-in-abundance and I was talking about the advertisement in the looking for group tool. So the social aspect I was talking about actually happens before you join the group.
What you describe is a different problem altogether. I actually adressed that in this paragraph:

[…]
The only thing I can get behind is the notion that a ccertain amount of skipping and stacking is the default way people do dungeons. Even if it is quite often executed in a way that actually makes it more dangerous or time consuming because people either aren’t experienced enough at it or have seen it elsewhere an do it for the entirely wrong reasons.
We could argue that this should not be the default way as opposed to actually exploring a dungeon. But that only works the first few times and then prople will try and speed it up because once the novelty of exploration has worn off most people will do it for the rewards.
[…]

The group you joined made no description of what they expected. Thus in my book as well as yours I believe, they offer a free for all.
But the problem here is, what is viewed as the default. I adressed that as well. The default usually is defined by the largest portion of the player base.
Edit: Or if that is not applicable/unknown: What the person that opened the group believes it is.
I’ll grant you it might be off putting to get into a group that doesn’t do things the way you expect them to be done. But once you’ve hit the first hard spot, that can be adressed by communication.
If the group lacked a description and you are unclear of what they intend to do, ask them if in doubt.
I’ll grant a beginner the benefit of doubt not to ask that question right away because he may not expect that to be relevant. The same might apply to someone who came back after a long break.
Still if you joined a group with little description (for example only the path) expect a free for all. They should do the same if they don’t specify what players they are looking for.

And if you encounter something you are anfamiliar with “during the first few dungeons” why didn’t you ask about it? Unless your are dealing with total kittens someone usually takes the time to answer.
If not I’ll agree it’s their failure to communicate properly.

Edit: In additon a beginner who points out that they are new to something usually gets at least brief pointers of what to do. Sometimes even in depth explanation if someone in the group feels like that.
Otherwise we are back at failure to communicate, but that is hardly the norm. Though it might be more memorable, because bad memories have a tendency to stick out more.

Dual.8953:

Bread.7516:

or or ooooor…i know this idea is crazy…label your own LFG.

WOW i think i redefined grouping!

You know what you want, you know what you have to do to get it, yet you do not do so. Genius

The thing is, most of the casual base has been bullied out of dungeoning, so chances are they won’t be looking. You can put the LFG up, but no one will join you if they’re all afraid to look. If they make a second channel, then all of a sudden the casual community will have a bastion where they can stick their necks out. The mere gesture would be enough to get an influx of casuals, and possibly give that group some momentum, so the casual players will be happy, and the speed runners won’t have to worry about them stumbling into their runs.

Again, that attitude you’re sporting is driving my point home.

Ok, first of all, how do you know that most of the casual player base has been bullied out of dungeoning? Why do you assume that they are too afraid to even look?
According to your own words you haven’t even tried to set up such a dungeon group. Because you assume that no one will see it. But how do you know if you’ve never even tried?
As you point out the players against skipping threads pop upevery other day. If people are so vocal about their point of view in the forums, why can’t they be the same in the lfg?

Even if I consider you might be on to something about a portion of the playerbase being alienated from dungeoning by the stack/skip-player portion, how would a second channel even help? They most likely won’t even see it anyway by your own reasoning.

In addition why are you asking Arenanet to make the effort to create 2 different lfg channels when you can’t even be bothered to simply make the effort to try and advertise a playstyle for your own dungeon group?

To add insult to injury, you say the skip/stack player group bullied other players from dungeons, but at the same point you lack the grace to even try to advertise your own playstyle in the lfg tool?
At least the zerker/meta-playstyle (the bullies, remember) are socially aware enough to communicate what they expect from their fellow group members.
Something you didn’t even bother to try based on assumptions that have no solid foundation as far as I can tell.
Btw. I’ll gladly admit I’m wrong about this, If you can give me a decent source for your theory.

Sorry if I may sound a little harsh but your argumentation is inconsistent as far as I can see. And your refusal to even give it a try doesn’t particularly help your reasoning.

The only thing I can get behind is the notion that a ccertain amount of skipping and stacking is the default way people do dungeons. Even if it is quite often executed in a way that actually makes it more dangerous or time consuming because people either aren’t experienced enough at it or have seen it elsewhere an do it for the entirely wrong reasons.
We could argue that this should not be the default way as opposed to actually exploring a dungeon. But that only works the first few times and then prople will try and speed it up because once the novelty of exploration has worn off most people will do it for the rewards.
And I would hazard a guess that the majority of the playerbase has moved to the second stage so they will try to save time. Which will make stacking/skipping to a certain degree the default. Simply defined by the majority of the players.
I’ll admit this is also an assumption. And feel free to point this out to me as I have done with yours.
If more people actually advertised RP-dungeoning or an actual exploratory game style, then someone new and/or into this would most likely gladly pick up such an opportunity. But if even people who argue the point on the forums can’t be bothered to advertise in this way, I fear it is a lost cause.

A last addition: Usually “casual” means “has less time to spare for the game”. Someone with that backround might actually be glad if some time is shaved of the run, especially if they are doing it for the dungeon tokens or to earn gold for some thing or another..
So maye you could pick a different term for the people you are trying to advocate for. But even I have to admit that is arguing semantics to a certain degree.

Invasion of the Asuran Globe Society?

But seriously, very cute screenshots.

I had a rather mixed reaction to the new skins.

First stage (after reading the announcement): Ohhh shiny! New skins!
Second stage (after seeing them, though I admit the name should have been a giveaway): What the…? o_O
Third stage after looking at them more closely: Though don’t actually sponsor a toon wheere they would fit the theme, they are indeed very nicely done skins. Especially like the sword, shield and pistol.
I f I had enough tickets I might actually – after some consideration – be tempted to rearrange the theme of either my thief or my mesmer for the skins, but since my number of tickets is too limited I’ll refrain from that.
(And silently hope that the next set of ticket-weapons will be equally nice.)

You mean the little nugget that they increase damage taken as well as damage dealt?

Still waiting for the fix on that. Or if the developement team decided to have them the current way as a double edged sword at least to update the tooltip accordingly.

Though I have no intention to join the initiative, because I enjoy a different playstyle, I have to reccommend the idea.

Basically it boils down to what is a part of what I feel to be the solution to make the game more enjoyable for everyone: Find likeminded people. Play with them. Have more fun!

There are a few other aspects to make the game more enjoyable, but they are not part of this topic.

The only thing I disagree about is the “forgot how to play” notion. The same goes for phrases like “how it was meant to be played”.
The mere fact that there are different philosophies of how to play and that all of them can be translated into a working playstyle shows that there is more than one way to play the game.

Like Chuck, from an outside point of view:
Iris, I would suggest not to use too many mentors in a trial run. Or clearly specify who performs as a Mentor in that run. Otherwise it might get confusing about who explained what and if mentor opinions differ, it might get even more confusing.
(That is assuming/hoping only good mannered, polite people are participating. Otherwise it might turn downright hostile.)
Unless I misinterpreted what you wrote and you meant to do it this way already.

Edit: And sorry if it appears as if I’m intruding in your business. Neither ist that my intention nor to sound condescending. :/

I think the basic problem with “heavies only” is that both heavy classes are (usually) more forgiving to mistakes even when built as glasscannons. It’s a different mechanic in both cases and the heavy armour is only part of the actual eqation, but still.
So people who try to go for “easymode” will prefer to take those.
That they actually criplle themselves due to poor party composition will never occur to them because medium dps with acceptable sustain combines to a rather easy to complete dungeon within an acceptable timeframe.

The problem however is that only a part of the problem can be adressed by the developement team. The rest is entirely up to the community because it’s in the players’ minds.
And ultimately, it’s their own decision in the long run how they wish to play. A rather simple solution for that comes in a later paragraph, just in case you were wondering.

As far as “hate towards rangers” goes. There are I guess two stigmas attached to rangers.
One: For the speed runners: They do subpar dmg compared to other classes. Even when traited and equppped properly for speedruns.

Two applies I think to all, not just speedclear setups: A ranger requires a bit more control (this includes selfcontrol) or micromanagement compared to let’s say a warrior. At least in my experience.
You have to control your pet directly for example to make sure ist doesn’t mess up positioning. In addition the best dps weapon the ranger has is rather difficult to control because you can’t simply break a large part of your AA chain to dodge. You have to rely on your skills to get a more or less well timed dodge. And both of the inbuilt avoidance skills of the sword can seriously mess up positioning. Plus you can’t “max range melee” with a sword as a ranger and more often than not jump through an object you’re trying to damage. Try it against the Mark II golem in the Maelstrom Mointains. You’ll understand the problem immediately. [brzzzzzt]
Even when using a longbow for example, there is a certain increased control required to make it work properly. (Please metagamers and speedclearers, just ignore this paragraph. I know using the word longbow and properly in a PvE setting gives you the hives.)
For example using it agains a group you’l have to use better positioning than other classes, because your main AE come from piercing arrows. and Those require good positioning. In addition: don’t panic every time a mob gets close to you. Pushing away a mob more often than not harms the groups effort instead of helping. (This applies to GS mesmers even more btw…)
And those are just the most obvious examples.

Someone else mentioned why give us all those choices in weapons and utilities if they are so clearly “subpar”? Note: Subpar when it comes to efficiency, for speedrunning and the like.
Well for two reasons:
Number one: fun. Some people enjoy playing wit an axe in their mainhand. Or being an archer. and there is nothing wrong with that as long as you play with likeminded people. And that’s the ultimate solution btw.: Play with likeminded people.
There are literally millions of players out there. Just look for those that share your philosophy in GW2 and you’re golden.
Number 2: Not everything is PvE and not everything in PvE is dungeons. Sounds weird in the dungeon forum I know.
But the game only distinguishes in a small number of skills between PvP and PvE. An some skills that clearly compete subpar in a dungeon environment when it comes to efficiency will work wonders in open world PvE, WvW or PvP. That’s why we have all those skills. For different gaming environments.
Does that make them all equally efficient in all environments? No, it doesn’t. Would it be nice if they did? Certainly. But to achieve something like that is simply impossible in a multiclass/multi environment setup.

Wow, this got longer than I expected. Sorry for that.

Tl;dr: Look for likeminded people, play with them, be golden!

If that indeed ist the case I have to add:
If I got that level of carelessness from an outsourced contractor in public relations, I’d find myself a new one.
But maybe I’m just weird like that.

Ok, honestly, I have to ask:
Is it so difficult to actually generate automated notifiations that actually tell you what happened? Or make the reasoning behind a moderator’s decision actually evident?
A few minutes ago I hat a notification, that a topic I posted in was “moved to another forum”.
Opening the PM however told me that the topic was in fact deleted entirely.

Note: I don’t mind if a topic gets deleted because it degraded to the point of personal insults or similar, but why does the notification message title state something different than the content?

A little while ago I had another of those little “hiccups” or whatever one might want to call them.
I got a notion that one of my topics was merged with another. That in itself isn’t my concern. If two topics are too similar, a merge actually is a good thing.
There were two things however, that made no sense in that case.
One: the “reason” given in the notification was “thread merged”. Which actually is just a blatant repeat of what already was stated in the notification subject. No actual reason given beyond those two words.
Maybe not surprising given the fact that the two topics had absolutely nothing in common whatsoever. One was about preferred playstyles and player attitudes and the other was about the legitimacy of selling dungeon paths for ingame gold.
What exactly might prompt two so dissimilar topics to be merged?

I might move on thin ice here criticising the moderators, but I’d still like to point out that the decisions of the moderators in some of the subforums seem a bit arbitrarily. And those are just the 2 cases in which I was personally affected because I had posted in those topics or actually created one of them.
The numberof weird mergings and deleted posts for no obvious reason is much longer than that, I’m afraid.

Edit: I might mention as well: I’m well aware that to tell or not tell us the reasoning behind a moderator’s decision is their prerogative and that we are not entitled to anything along those lines.
But giving these halfhearted notification messages just adds insult to injury in such a case. At least imho.

I’m not entirely certain if I just overlooked it and it was alredy mentioned, but there’s a little problem with the trident 2: Purifying Blast.
When you detonate the orb it either triggers a single combo field twice or if there are multiple combo fields present it will trigger 2 of them.

I honestly can’t understand why this thread has not become a sticky yet.

Thank you for this most entertaining read.

I picked up on the 18% because it was better than using any imaginary number I could come up with.
That doesn’t invalidate the pont however, as you saird yourself: “via many players and many runs”. But the percentage, whatever the exact number may be, is the overall chance for large pool of players. And that will mean some are more lucky than others, some are extremely lucky and some are extremely unlucky.
The overall percentage stays the same, but that doesn’t help the unlucky players with their plight.

And I have no problem with you defending the rarity of something.

I have a problem with rng being the only viable means to access it. Instead of time invested.
As for my 25+ suggestion: 25 would mean a hundred fractals, or 25 full runs. For a single skin? Quite a bit of work.
In another thread I suggested 30 or even 50 relics. Personally I would have no problem going that far, but I’m one of those lucky players when it comes to fratal skins, so I try not to use my own luck as a reference.
And the player paying the relics will have done a large number of fractals one way or the other. They will have earned the skin through sheer determination. At least I think so.
It’s not like I promote them to be availlable on the TP or something like that.

I don’t think lowering your expectations is the right way honestly.

If someone makes a clear description of what they expect or want in their group it is my responsibility to not join that group if I don’t meet those requirements or don’t want to play that way.

Like in so many aspects of life, communication is the key. But communication works from both ends, sender and receiver. The key should be to raise awareness to what is clearly posted in a group’s description.
If you are uncomfortable with what you see, don’t join and instead promote your own group with your expectations (or lack thereof).

I do recognize the problem of what actually constitutes as an adequate description of your expectations. In an environment as the LFG tool giving a long winded explanation about playstyles is not exactly viable, I agree. But usually such kinks can be worked out with a brief chat before you start the run, if you fell like there’s a need to clarify.
I’m aware that all this talking is a bit counterproductive to the entire “speed”
run thingy, but I honestly prefer an additional minute of communication opposed to 10+ minutes of frustration.

On the other hand of course that means that somenoe who hast not put in any kind of specifics as to what they want in their group’s description offers a free for all. And without the effort of clearly signalling what they wish for removes a large portion of their right to complain imo. At least about certain factors.

Language barriers of course are a different matter I have to admit and I encountered a couple of problems myself in that regard.

Edit: Despite my signature I had to correct at least a few of the more horrible typos I made. Made even my eyes bleed to look at some of them.

Edit 2: Forgot a little something: If you do join a group with little or no description, then don’t expect them to do things the way you know/expect them to do it. And you may be disappointed if they don’t take well meaning advice, but remember: You joined a free for all. You did. Of your own accord.

For some obscure reason, the problem didn’t appear last night at all. Did my usual quick zoning and opening the TP all of a sudden worked just fine.
Before, the problem was more or less reproduceable although the exact number of zone transitions until it happened varied.

WTB stack of necros. Might even make the 30 minute cooldown they put on pet summon consumables worthwhile.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

The problem is that the 18% or whatever the number might be is over the whole playerbase to get a large enough sample size and it’s not like it accumulates over time so that during your 6th run you will have one guaranteed.
Some people just have more luck and get an effective droprate of 40% and others will have theirs “reduced” so the overall drope rate will even out again at the mentioned 18% for example.
I know a few cases of such extremely unlucky players as well as a few of the extremely lucky. Between them, they will most likely meet the overall chance, but individually some of them are screwed.

Which is why I still hope, however unrealistic it may seem, that the skins will become availlable through pristine relics. And before someone says something along those lines: I’m talking expensive here, something along the lines of 25 or even more relics.

I think the question might be worded a little unlucky, but yes it does mean what you are asking, I think.

Since the fractal levels have gone account wide, you will get the daily reward only once per account per tier as opposed to before where you could get it once per character per tier.

Thanks for adding a description of how the error presents itself. Forgot to mention that. It’s the same as yours. Opening the window works just fine but as soon as the game tries to load the content of the page the crash occurs.

Crowded areas per se don’t usually trigger any crash or at least I haven’t noticed that yet because I usually only end up in them after a couple of travel jump. And after a fresh login, even in a crowded area, LA for example, I have no problems at all.