Guild Wars 2

If there is going to be a CDI about developer communication, I really feel an answer is needed in regards to communication with the dungeon community. It feels like for all intents and purposes we might as well not exist, there’s that little interaction.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Mike O Brien.4613:

I know some are concerned about whether ArenaNet is communicating with you and listening and responding to your feedback. As you saw with yesterday’s announcement, we do. All of us at ArenaNet play the game with you, chat with you and read your forum posts, and work on the things that we think will most delight and entertain you.

We’ve set a clear policy in the past year: we don’t talk speculatively about future development. We don’t want to string you along. Creating fun is an uncertain business: sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t; sometimes we go back to the drawing board over and over before we get something right. If we make optimistic promises and then can’t deliver on them, everyone suffers. So when we attend a trade show or give an interview, we’re there to talk about what we’re getting ready to ship, not to speculate on what we might ship someday.

Don’t read that as meaning that we don’t want to talk with you about the longer-term roadmap. The intention of the CDI threads is to talk with you about the roadmap. We want to talk design philosophy with you and hear how you want to see the game evolve. When those discussions trigger development, we’ll work internally until we have something we’re proud of before we’ll announce it.

A lot of the questions I’ve seen posted this week are as simple as this: does ArenaNet have an agenda to never do something? That’s almost never the case, and if it is the case you deserve to know and we’ll make sure we get more clear. In general the simple truth is this: when we’re not currently working on something, it’s because we’re working on something else instead that we think is more important for the game and community.

Our developers post on these forums on a voluntary basis, and in addition to developers, we have a community team who can clarify and be the bridge between players and developers. They’re ready to engage you on these topics. And I know it’s hard for the community team to engage players across all the forums and sites where these questions are being discussed, so I’m going to support the team in consolidating and focusing as necessary, so that we can be clear to the community where you can go to get a response.

See you in-game,
Mike O’Brien

Precursor scavenger hunt…

Tell me again how you don’t talk speculatively?

Please know I do appreciate the time and effort put in to making this post. One long overdue but at least it is now here… Just please don’t make statements that are blatantly untrue…

There are many other instances of features being said that they are being developed some even given a preliminary time table… all to be lost to oblivion never to be spoken of again… I just used precursor scavenger hunt as the most obvious example.

Was the scavenger hunt promised “in the last year”?

I don’t believe it was, therefore his point stands.

J Eberle.9312:

Trice.4598:

Anyone who trolls on the internet deserve a real good beating IRL.

Ok.

ol uncle colesy gon b giving u a guuuuuud beating gurl

Miku Lawrence.6329:

^ I’m not sure either how killing a boss before he does his attack is fun. But hey, I must be a casual.

It’s fun because fighting hp bags that can’t even do anything is the epitome of video game entertainment. Attacking lions arch targets was the true end game before it was destroyed. If you can not appreciate the sheer joy of pressing 4 in walls and the extreme amounts of skill required, then yes good sir, you are a casual.

I WOULD LIKE A SLOT

thank god i raised that gold

Conjure dispenser- i mean elementalist
class to help the conjure dispenser not die
everything else

Warriors do around 13,000dps, fiery Greatsword wielders do around 40,000. On what planet is hundred blades even close?

carry … greatsword … mesmer? not sure how to feel about this

lets see if i can quickly farm 50g for a slot >.<

I bought this outfit today and then realised that it clips massively with almost every single hair style on human female characters. Is there any way for the puffy collar to be removed or something? It’s extremely jarring.

Changing something which oppressively dominates the meta isn’t meaningful? I say good riddance.

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Except you do not know what I want since you were too busy insulting while I was talking with the people responsible for tournament organisation.

If you are not part of those people, or if you are not willing to contribute to the future of competitive PvE, I would appreciate if you could step aside and let us talk as adults.

You know, I tried to go in to self imposed exile from the forum to get away from the insanity, but I think it is worth replying to this. What do you actually want? All you and select others have said is that we aren’t doing what’s best for the community (spoiler – community gives us donations and loves what we’re doing, don’t speak on their behalf thx) and that the tournaments are badly designed, yet you haven’t said anything about how it should be done. Alternatively, you could host your own. So please tell us your ideas, because I haven’t seen any and the endless crying from select individuals is extremely tedious to read.

Here is how I see it. Record run is done with engineer. You claim engineer isn’t worth taking for a record. Do faster run without engineer. Claim proven. Axe having higher co efficient versus gs was taken as ‘common sense’ until people actually bothered to do the math rather than just assuming strife was right. Again, open your eyes. Experiment with new ideas. Dub mentioned phalanx strength to me, I entertained it (while most dismissed it) forwarded it to the rest of the guild and now it’s considered a decent fractal build or a pug dungeon build. Open your eyes. Actually test things yourself before assuming.

Purple Miku.7032:

I hardly know anyone who’s ever even done CoE story without exploiting to the last boss tbh. I also don’t remember any of the encounters in the path at all, so I can’t recall whether or not the majority of them are FGSable.

Basically any boss that you can make use of FGS for, vuln is taken care of. Pretty much any time that stealth is needed, thief is just about always picked. Since I don’t know CoE story and don’t really care about story modes, I can’t really say much about them. Engineer might legitimately be better to take for some of them, but I can’t confirm that.

Anywho, any particular reason why you’re always so belligerent with me and just about everyone else? Seeking attention or what?

Stop making bold claims and then making absolutely zero effort to prove them and it will no longer be necessary. Do you know who else likes to make claims without any knowledge or experience? The supposed casuals you dislike. Open your mind a little.

robertul.3679:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

robertul.3679:

OP makes thread about team construction and someone posts the mandatory condition war solo. Great time to be alive.

Because people don’t always understand why condi builds are not optimal in groups.

It was posted for e-pen and we all know it.

It’s posted for all the times people say condition damage is bad without understanding how much damage it does, and the actual context of where the statement applies. The fact that it was me who did that video is just bonus points for me.

Can someone tell me why you have to be a "top-tier pvp’er" to realise that you don’t like seeing asura and want to just see your opponents as standardised models? That is literally the most mind blowing excuse I have ever read as justification for not immediately rolling this feature to *all* PvP modes.

If I pugged and someone did that trick on lupicus I’d literally just leave party and kill the instance right there.

Feel free to beat it then.

I’m pretty sure engi was just used in AC and COE story records. So if you’d feel free to elaborate on this ‘no good for record run’ attitude and provide actual video evidence of doing them without engi that would be cool. Or we can carry on with the ‘make claims without even spending two seconds to confirm them’ behaviour, like people have done to Guang and myself so many times.

You’re saying things like that without actually understanding how much damage conditions are capable of because you haven’t bothered to theory craft or experiment with them. The potency of conditions in solo depends on which ones you can apply, how much you can apply and the amount of direct damage and vulnerability in comparison you are capable of doing. Warriors can maintain enormous amounts of might so conditions are only better versus heavy targets for them. Ranger berserker dps sucks, so conditions might even be better for them versus medium targets (especially when axe main gains might on hit) – though I haven’t tested that. Here is what I’ve discovered – conditions ‘in general’ are superior solo versus heavy targets – warrior conditions are inferior against anything lighter but it’s up in the air for other classes.

zapv.8051:

oxtred.7658:

1) a condi warrior deals more damage than a berserker one on a heavy armored target, so yeah, conditions are already outdamaging pure power ( with free toughness on top)
2) The cap issue has been acknowledged by anet, it’s a strict server problem, you can’t keep track of 5×25 bleeds, at least that’s what they said.
3) You can play how you want. Just join any “all welcomed” lfg or start your own. Sure, you won’t be accepted for a speedrun in rabid, how’s that surprising?
4) The only way to make condi more suited for pve without destroying pvp is to split the skills and mechanics, and we’re used to anet not wanting that.
All in all, yeah having condi builds viable in groups would be a change. But they are already so powerful in all other game modes where berserker doesn’t shine, meh. Condi builds already deal too much damage for the amount of toughness it provides, imo. Also, if conditions are calculated for each players, that means125 vuln stacks. lel.

I want to see some actual evidence for 1.

Find me a faster solo in berserker gear.

Dual.8953:

maha.7902:

Dual.8953:

maha.7902:

Everything is already viable, just not optimal. The gap between damage output on gear stats does not need to be decreased. If you have trouble dodging or want to RP as a tank/healer you shouldn’t have damage even close to a glass cannon, you should have to gear and trait ‘properly’ if you want to output good dps otherwise there is no risk/reward.

Unfortunately being viable in this game just isn’t enough in party gameplay, thanks to the game’s community. The only way non-meta players get slots in parties in this game is if they’re lucky or make their own party (And even then I’ve heard of party leaders being kicked from their own runs for not adhering to the meta), and the community doesn’t even let them take pride in their build. They only care if they “think” your build is useful to them.

And guess how meta players get slots? Making their own parties.

Do you think “zerk only ping gear” lfgs just appear by mandate of god or something? Of course not.

The difference is Meta built players are allowed virtually everywhere. No Zerk allowed parties are practically non-existant. Zerk only parties are dime a dozen.
Unmarked parties can even be assumed to be zerk parties.

How is a non-berserker user not being allowed in a berserker party a problem?

This is like saying (now I’m not saying meta = good, but bear with me …)

“The difference is good players are allowed virtually everywhere. Casual run parties are practically non-existent. Parties asking for good players are dime a dozen. Unmarked parties can even be assumed to be wanting good players”.

So of course players who play and gear for efficiency are allowed anywhere, and players who don’t aren’t allowed in efficiency-oriented parties. How is this even a problem? Isn’t incompatible players staying away from each other good? It prevents conflict. I don’t run condition warrior in “zerk only” groups, I just make nondescript lfgs and run it there.

I’m pretty sure like every class besides ranger and necro has it easy for that last skip if you come properly prepared.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

maha.7902:

ANet balances around group content. Warrior was balanced for group content. The fact that people dispute this blows my mind. Maybe more people will try condition soloing now though.

Well okay. But the videos and proof of warrior supremacy solo, it’s entirely possible that anet chose not to balance around group content in regard to warrior this time. They’re humans not robots, their algorithms can be altered.

It’s hardly warrior supremacy, most people either just can’t be bothered or don’t want to play their eles. And herein lies the problem – we don’t know what anet are balancing around. GS is like non existent in PvP and nerfing the damage of two skills doesn’t make it more viable, and warrior is an average dps offensive support class in group pve content. There is no precedent of anet balancing around solo efficiency and they haven’t even elaborated as far as I’m aware if the GS changes are for pve or PvP. Precedent would say PvP, but who knows.

ANet balances around group content. Warrior was balanced for group content. The fact that people dispute this blows my mind. Maybe more people will try condition soloing now though.

that’s because you do daily boredom tours rather than do what I do, have a quick session of credit card wars 2 and then going back to actually doing fun stuff in game :p

Dual.8953:

maha.7902:

Everything is already viable, just not optimal. The gap between damage output on gear stats does not need to be decreased. If you have trouble dodging or want to RP as a tank/healer you shouldn’t have damage even close to a glass cannon, you should have to gear and trait ‘properly’ if you want to output good dps otherwise there is no risk/reward.

Unfortunately being viable in this game just isn’t enough in party gameplay, thanks to the game’s community. The only way non-meta players get slots in parties in this game is if they’re lucky or make their own party (And even then I’ve heard of party leaders being kicked from their own runs for not adhering to the meta), and the community doesn’t even let them take pride in their build. They only care if they “think” your build is useful to them.

And guess how meta players get slots? Making their own parties.

Do you think “zerk only ping gear” lfgs just appear by mandate of god or something? Of course not.

Everything is already viable, just not optimal. The gap between damage output on gear stats does not need to be decreased. If you have trouble dodging or want to RP as a tank/healer you shouldn’t have damage even close to a glass cannon, you should have to gear and trait ‘properly’ if you want to output good dps otherwise there is no risk/reward.

There’s some sort of dress that was data mined a while ago so my hope is that anet will then re release the three outfits (the dress, ceremonial and the ninja outfit) as fully functioning armour for their respective weight classes – I wouldn’t mind paying gems for that.

I thought it would be relevant as an example rather than purely speaking in hypotheticals – what the OP wants already exists to an extent (berserker vs. rabid soloing) and it’s kind of dumb that you can stack toughness and deal damage equivalent to a glass cannon. People using defensive gear already get help – they can miss dodges and not lose a large chunk of their hp (look up no dodge arah p2). Here’s the reality – if you want to do damage, trait and gear for it. You should not be allowed to trait and gear tanky and have dps on par with glass cannons, the whole idea of that is insane and throws risk/reward in the trash can since it just wouldn’t exist.

Why should the difference between berserker and other sets be lower? Why should people be rewarded with similar clear times if they are stacking defensive stats? I’ve soloed lupicus in 4:58 in berserker and 5:11 in rabid gear. How is it fair that I can wear a gear stat which gives me like 3k armour and get a kill time on par with a gear stat that has no defensive stat?

Well, my reply was mostly about open-world PvE, where the rank ups tend to happen very often when scale up hits.

So your problem is with the condition cap.

The key thing to note is that the game is balanced around five-man groups (pvp, dungeons), not 100-man zergs.

Also about armor, the higher it is, the higher is player’s aggro rating, so it’s not all that selfish.

Aggro isn’t that cut and dry. Proximity, damage dealt and toughness are all factors. In a pug sometimes bosses will be glued to me when I’m full glass, sometimes I use rabid and they won’t leave me alone either- it’s really random. It’s selfish because toughness and vitality contribute nothing to kill times or your party’s survivability – it doesn’t help you aegis better, reflect better, protect better. It just wrecks your damage output for no real gain.

If the player attempts to keep certain variables up during combat (closest to target, has shield, has very high armor and deals damage), they can control the aggro of mobs, boss monsters are mostly exception due to special rules.

Control of mob aggro is literally irrelevant, boss aggro is the major one – and reliable information on it is pretty desolate. I’ve noticed for example that Belka and Alphard will always aggro an ascended armour wearer over exotic (defense is the aggro priority in this case), whereas Lupicus sometimes loves squishies, sometimes loves the tankiest player, sometimes loves the closest player. It’s just rolling the RNG wheel.

OP, here is what will happen:

1. People will be angry their gear was basically removed
2. People will find the next highest DPS option(s)
3. People will follow the new meta
4. No “varied playstyles”, just a meta like there has and always will be

FrostSpectre.4198:

Tree.3916:

FrostSpectre.4198:

Bad mistake, which caused that Support, CC and conditions have the shortest straw…

Support and CC are part of every speed clear team comp, but most don’t pay attention. Condition damage is viable for dungeon solos.

Since I successfully turned your position, I expect you will reply expressing thanks for the educational moment.

Group content that gives reason for conditions, etc.
But:

• Mobs health with rank ups, is usually heavily boosted against conditions, especially with the current condition system.
• Mobs have simple skill sets that mainly hurt 1 player, making support in general having barely need.
• Mobs with considerable abilities, are usually immune to CC due to being rank Champ and higher.

Mobs are not boosted against conditions in any way. You have a few rare examples like alpha, alphard, belka and lupicus who cleanse conditions or have shorter durations on conditions but they’re exceptions, not the rule. So if mobs cleaved that would require a build stacking selfish defensive stats like vitality and toughness? Mobs are not immune to CC either, they’re just immune to the pointless spamming of it after you land your first Ckittenil you burn through five more – it promotes intelligent play and not mindless spamming. Conditions are also important even in groups as sources of damage amplification, burning to proc fiery wrath on guards, bleeding to proc attack of opportunity on warrior, a new ranger trait I believe is going to give a modifier if a mob is afflicted with a movement impairing condition. Then there’s vulnerability which is pretty straightforward. Conditions could be better, but for group content they basically operate in a support role to activate damage modifiers.

Ascended weapons are like 5% more damage, check on your hundred blades if the target is bleeding, check how much might you have at the start of your hundred blades, use good food like truffle steak, stack bloodlust, use undead/force on GS, have less than full endurance for 3% damage modifier, make sure to have full adrenaline. Do all this and you’ll be getting 40k hb on belka, 28k on abom and lupicus, 56k on hunter and so on.

Mesket.5728:

maha.7902:

Mesket.5728:

Galen Grey.4709:

Mesket.5728:

DigitalKirin.9714:

ANet provides the tools. The community provides the demand.

This is where you are wrong…

ANet provides the tools. The environment provides the demand. The community responds…

The ball for a more diverse/complex game is on a ANet side. One build to rule them all is what makes this game flawed and basic in my book.

Is it really the environment that you mean or rather artificial restrictions though? I mean if the environment inflicts conditions doesnt that create the need for condition removal? if the environment inflicts damage doesnt that create the need for healing / crowd control?

The fact that a full zerk player can be as supportive as a full “insert whatever support gear you have in mind” proves the support role flawed and it drags the game design along with it. Dungeon design and combat design is pretty shallow and basic. This is the easiest MMORPG out there (and a medium to hardcore ARCADE depending on how much you solo).

As long as a full team of zerks can endure conditions and bypass those difficulties then the environment is not demanding a support role like you propose so I stand correct.

Environment demands nothing that is why it leaves room for full zerk teams to exceed.

The environment demands, in GW2 it demands nothing, so the community respond with the most devastating gear cause defense is not necessary/demanded.

It doesn’t prove the support role is flawed at all, it just proves ANet right in the fact they wanted players to be able to support, control and DPS.

I wish these people wanting their zero DPS cleric builds to be good would realise they’re playing the wrong game and the unholy trinity is that way.

Yes it does. First MMORPG ever, Ultima Online; already had this concept. One character could do anything if trained properly. He could heal, buff, be a warrior a wizard, all in one. It was changed for the sake of team play. GW2 just went 17 years backwards in game designing.

let me rephrase. you think it is flawed. As seen in game by speed clearers though, anet succeeded in their goal of making it possible to support, dps and control at the same time. What this demonstrates is that the support role in gw2 is working as intended (as in, you can perform it in addition to two other roles) but that you simply don’t like it. So to answer the OP – the non DPS roles in this game are crucial, LoSing, offensive buffing and damage mitigation are all crucial support and control aspects required to make it possible to deal as much damage as you can.

The combat, and getting arah recordings done. <5 lupicus, alphard w/box intact, ooze, wraithlord, balthazar and lyssa solos still on my to-do list in addition to a belka that doesn’t suck (<2 min). The dungeon forum is just a toxic hellhole full of people whining about ‘casuals’ and ‘pugs’ rather than trying to just get over it and realise not everyone is going to play on their level.

Mesket.5728:

Galen Grey.4709:

Mesket.5728:

DigitalKirin.9714:

ANet provides the tools. The community provides the demand.

This is where you are wrong…

ANet provides the tools. The environment provides the demand. The community responds…

The ball for a more diverse/complex game is on a ANet side. One build to rule them all is what makes this game flawed and basic in my book.

Is it really the environment that you mean or rather artificial restrictions though? I mean if the environment inflicts conditions doesnt that create the need for condition removal? if the environment inflicts damage doesnt that create the need for healing / crowd control?

The fact that a full zerk player can be as supportive as a full “insert whatever support gear you have in mind” proves the support role flawed and it drags the game design along with it. Dungeon design and combat design is pretty shallow and basic. This is the easiest MMORPG out there (and a medium to hardcore ARCADE depending on how much you solo).

As long as a full team of zerks can endure conditions and bypass those difficulties then the environment is not demanding a support role like you propose so I stand correct.

Environment demands nothing that is why it leaves room for full zerk teams to exceed.

The environment demands, in GW2 it demands nothing, so the community respond with the most devastating gear cause defense is not necessary/demanded.

It doesn’t prove the support role is flawed at all, it just proves ANet right in the fact they wanted players to be able to support, control and DPS.

I wish these people wanting their zero DPS cleric builds to be good would realise they’re playing the wrong game and the unholy trinity is that way.

robertul.3679:

“melee lupi” is an attempt to find decent players since it seems more reliable than “experienced”.

Hardly. 99% of the time it’s just bad players looking for a carry. The remainder is actual experienced players too lazy or unwilling to solo so they’re hoping and praying they don’t get players that suck.

dlonie.6547:

maha.7902:

dlonie.6547:

Slowpokeking.8720:

dlonie.6547:

Which dungeon relies on trash mobs for difficulty?

Then why not remove them?

I think you misread my question. I meant which specific dungeon, in your opinion, relies on trash mobs to provide the basis of the path’s difficulty?

I’m just curious because I’ve never felt that way about a path and want to hear your perspective.

AC, CM, SE, COF, Arah all have punishing trash mobs. I mean if you compare the difficulty of arah p2’s brain afk bosses to the trash runs …

I’d say Lupi still provides the biggest chunk of difficulty in Arah. I’ve run past every piece of trash in that dungeon without a problem, but still haven’t gotten Lupi solo. These mobs are part of the “skipping mechanics” in the dungeons, but I wouldn’t say that they provide an unreasonable amount of the dungeon’s difficulty.

And I’m not sure what Slowpokeking agrees with me about? I didn’t make any statements, I asked a question…

In any case, completely stripping the mobs from dungeons would be a poor solution to any problem they’d cause.

You say that, but then I’ve done arah pugs where I’ve literally sat at magecrusher/shoggroth/abomination for a good half an hour with rage quits in between waiting to see who can actually make the trash run. Then there’s the final bosses of p1 and p2 which pugs are pretty terrible at too. But then, when they get to these bosses to fight them it’s mostly fine (except stargazer, people can’t dodge that guy even if their life depended on it).

dlonie.6547:

Slowpokeking.8720:

dlonie.6547:

Which dungeon relies on trash mobs for difficulty?

Then why not remove them?

I think you misread my question. I meant which specific dungeon, in your opinion, relies on trash mobs to provide the basis of the path’s difficulty?

I’m just curious because I’ve never felt that way about a path and want to hear your perspective.

AC, CM, SE, COF, Arah all have punishing trash mobs. I mean if you compare the difficulty of arah p2’s brain afk bosses to the trash runs …

ANet in all of their subtlety are going to nerf lupicus with a sledgehammer, some people will cry that you can’t solo anymore (in good time) with reflect classes and I’m just going to roll my eyes thinking “I told you so” all because fools thought it would be a clever idea to post videos of obliterating a boss in that way. I mean, our only precedent of anet reacting to extreme reflect damage is their response to the ranger one shot of Malrona by making the projectiles unblockable.

Feel free to point out the pve balance changes then? You know, because flanking strike/larcenous strike are used heavily in pve, the exclusive PvP changes to whirling axe, the choking gas change which thieves use all the time in pve and the might on axe attacks is clearly going to push rangers in to the pve meta. Sure, the changes suck, but don’t fool yourself in to thinking anet don’t balance around PvP, they almost exclusively balance around it, with complete disregard to whether the changes will be detrimental to pve because they quite simply don’t care about it.

Empower Allies means jack all, I never take it.

Just got a fractal longbow from a 49 after leeching a guild run @ final boss and basically being flat on my face for half the fight

leeching ftw

2) Hardcore are people who put a lot of effort into the game and it’s systems. They are the people who work to develop new strategies, ideas, and expand the game through making all those ideas as strong as they can to the respective goals. Being active and just going through the dungeon claiming “Efficiency,” is not hardcore. again, see my instruction guide comment.

The problem is it’s hard to define the point where someone slips out of hardcore and in to, I suppose, “normal”. I’d consider a lot of people in the guild I’m in hardcore because they’re active, committed to the game and are the people who create the meta to allow other people to follow and learn it. But sure, you’re right – if someone logs in every day, does some dungeons and just tries to claim X is efficient that isn’t really hardcore at all.

3) You’re first sentence killed the rest of the comment. “This build is best” is not the though process of someone whom truely understands this game, nor understands real hardcore gaming. the rest has nothing to do with my quote so I won’t address it.

“best” in the sense of “optimal”. Take record videos for example – they are the seemingly best thing possible to do for that dungeon, but no pug is ever going to have the skill, patience or organisation to pull it off. Then you can look at casual dungeon runs, like when Nike uploads ours. Still pretty fast tactics but not super risky high-end stuff, so most people look at them and try to emulate them since they seem within the realm of possibility. Again, in most cases that isn’t possible, so the next level are the “common knowledge” tactics which form over time. If you can’t perform fast runs like ours or records, then this is your next best bet. So basically, your problem is with people who try performing strategies which are either out of their or their group’s depth because “this guide said so” – which makes sense, there’s no point trying to do anything fancy in a pug group for example.

4) See you’re own post when you say this. “The “instruction guide” is best” isn’t that case in point of the elitism? Anyway I do agree, it’s ok to ask for a speedrun group in LFG and kick when people don’t listen to your demands. However as I said, my issue is the frequency of them appearing. I have done dungeons enough to say this. -EVERY- time I try to dungeon run, 4/5 groups want “lvl 80, exp, zerks only.” It’s not that they exist, it’s that it’s become the expectation.

I almost exclusively pug with nondescript LFGs. It’s a simple case of making a group yourself – those “exp, zerks only” groups are the only thing you’re seeing on the LFG because they take longer to fill, but the nondescript or casual runs fill quickly because there’s no requirements so you rarely see them. I’d recommend making your own group, I’ve just wrote “path 2”, start soloing waiting for the group to fill and literally had no bites up until the second last boss but that was a one-off, every other group I make fills pretty quickly.

I was called a burden, moronic, and a fool, -multiple- times on this forum and in game(worse in game) because I state that playing the game by one variable(DPS) is just stupid.

But it’s not stupid, and I don’t see why it is. Any video game which involves killing stuff is damage-centric. In a trinity game you’ll have like a healer, tank and 3 DPS – you have three DPS because damage is what actually kills stuff, the healer and tank are just there to control the boss mechanics and keep everyone’s HP topped off, but they do jack all damage, you need to eventually kill the boss so that’s why you need damage dealing.

I was told it was morally ok to kick people because they weren’t died all pink.

If you make a group and ask for people to be wearing pink dye and people don’t wear it and refuse to wear it, you have every right to kick them since they didn’t bother reading your requirement.

In a game of such amazing diversity and game balance…there is only one meta-build. No, really, I looked, I struggle to find even a second “accepted” build for say, my mesmer;

30/30/0/0/10
30/20/0/20/0
30/20/0/0/20
10/15/0/25/20

scholar runes/ranger runes
berserker/assassin gear
force/night/slaying/accuracy/perception sigils
sword/pistol/focus + torch for skips & blast finisher

there’s quite a few options for mesmer.

so you should have looked in to mesmer builds a bit deeper.

Thats not a hardcore society, thats a bunch of casual fools pretending to be “pro” while pushing away anyone else with the label “casual” as an insult, one I’ve been given a lot in and out of this forum.

define:hardcore:

“the most active, committed, or doctrinaire members of a group or movement.”

I’m pretty sure it’s the people running the meta who fit that criteria for PvE, PvP and WvW. they’re actively playing the game, they’re committed to it (and in our case some of us make guides). Not sure about doctrinaire, since the whole point is that meta builds are the most practical…. but meh.

the problem is that “experienced only”, isn’t used to mean experience, it’s used to mean you follow the single running instruction guide. My problem is that out of 5 groups in the LFG, there is maybe ONE that isn’t “lvl 80 only, zerk only, exp only.” It’s not the strategy that bugs me, its the abysmal over-saturation and the arrogant assumption that the instruction guide is best.

The “instruction guide” is best, but only as long as you can execute it yourself. The “instruction guide” operates under the assumption that you have the skill level capable of pulling it off, so yes, if you can’t perform some of the popular strategies then it won’t be the best way to do things.

That is why I call those elitist fools, elitist fools. When you don’t want to put any effort at all into the game, and are instead throwing around the word efficiency, you have no right to be lecturing others

How does a lack of effort equate to elitism?
elitism:

“Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite—a select group of people with a certain ancestry, intrinsic quality or worth, high intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes—are those whose influence or authority is greater than that of others”

(thought I’d find a more relevant to GW2 definition on the wiki than the google one)

There is nothing here about lack of effort, it’s to do with person X thinking their view is better than person Y. To put in to GW2 terms, it’s to do with person A putting up requirement B for their LFG and kicking people C, D and E who don’t fit the criteria because person A feels their view is right, and C, D and E did not fit in to that vision and so were excluded from the group.

edit: And no, the pug environment is poisenous, full of people whom skip and stack at ever interval even when the game whom made the party asked not to(first hand experience,) and where 4/5 groups are all “lvl 80, exp, zerk only.” Need I even mention the point I was told “F**** KILL YOURSELF” for going against the instruction guides? Sound healthy to you?

The pug environment is not poisonous at all. I don’t even know why people say this, I have literally never had problems with rude people, and anyone who did came across as rude was quickly put in place.

Yes, because when it comes to things which are actually relevant and should be changed they don’t bother.

Soloed her just now on second attempt to like 1% without stacks with a few errors in rotation, so it’s still possible to solo like before, it’s just without stacks there’s very little room for error like before and you still need to do clean rotations. With stacks, 100% possible with a few seconds to spare.