HappyHubris.1096

And of course, I'm sure this guy uses Facebook, buys stuff on Amazon, searches using Google, sends information using gmail or a similar service, uses the internet without a proxy, etc. A smidgen of technical literacy is worse than none at all... Aside from Win10's "phone home" features all being optional, of course. And yes, Linux on the Desktop will catch on any day year decade century, now. The audience on this board probably skews younger, but I remember a buddy ranting that Linux would displace Windows on the desktop...20 years ago? It turns out that most people will happily pay $50 or $100 to not use Linux...

I would like to see Tempest put out competitive PVE damage without Fresh Air or conjured weapons, as both feel clumsy. I love the elementalist aesthetic, but the mechanics just feel very convoluted compared to say Chrono (which itself has some clunky elements).

I wonder what % of the playerbase completed this jumping puzzle? ...without ports? ...or add-on assistance? It probably doesn't make a ton of sense to craft content for a tiny % of the playerbase.

Why Cinebench? Just ease of benchmarking? I could use a faster CPU, but have no desire to rebuild at this time. The point is that a 2012 MMO shouldn't need nearly decade-later tech to run at an acceptable level. I should try DXVK but honestly don't feel like putting the time in after getting d912pxy working.

7700K and a 1080Ti. More graphically challenging games maintain a higher frame rate, including other MMOs.

Even with D912PXY, performance is way too low for my hardware.

Agreed 100%, but ArenaNet doesn't have the staffing to completely overhaul the game, and the community would cry bloody murder. At least at launch boons required some effort with blasting fields and such. "Pile up in a blob" is the worst style of play to encourage, yet that's the reality in WvW and many forms of PvE.

People wanting to play GW2 aren't going to be running a Pentium 2. "probably wouldn't even install to" is you just making something up. I stuck Win10 on my old netbook from 2009 with AMD's ultra low power cores, a slow HDD, minimal RAM, etc. And it worked fine. That system isn't relevant today, let alone anything even more ancient. I've been hearing people tell me that Linux on the Desktop will catch on for over 15 years now, but it turns out that the vast majority of people are happy to pay $100 to avoid it.

The Steam results are skewed by Net Cafes in developing countries that use pirated older versions of Windows. This creates wonky results. I mean, the last Steam Survey showed that Win 10 went down 2.5% and Win 7 went up 2.9%. Do you think that a bunch of people went out and traded in their Win 10 systems for Win 7 or bought new Win 7 machines? No, some free game became popular in developing countries and they logged a bunch of pirated machines onto Steam.

No, because no one cares about the six Win7 holdouts in 2021. They deserve whatever virus-infested experience they get, and no company is going to cater to them.

This makes zero sense. No one should be running Win7 in 2021, Win10 was a free upgrade, and people have had years to buy a Win10 key if they somehow could not upgrade.

DX12 support came out seven years ago, withe the Geforce 900 series. It's unlikely that many players are using older GPUs, and if they are no DX update is going to make the game play well at modern resolutions.

This is all great news for me. I need more time to catch up on content, and the DX11 implementation could fix one of my biggest gripes with the game!

Our whining paid off, everyone! https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/arenanet-studio-update-july-2021/

I mean, without functioning DPS meters theorycrafting was much more difficult. If I recall back to that time speedrunning was more about skipping trash and overcoming geometry than burning large-hp bosses. I guess I see the condition cap as a "fix" not power creep. Will concede on some of the other buffs. As a counter-point, players still struggle to compete T1 Fractals. But people who care to learn find them trivial.

Most of the difficulty back then was players just mashing buttons with random builds using soldiers gear. Especially with players used to wandering around and completing hearts. Players have more in-game tools, but the biggest "power creep" is (1) casual players dropping out in the last ten years and (2) a proliferation of information about builds, rotations, bosses, etc. If you took today's community and dropped them off in the game as it was released, they would romp all of the content. Even if the builds available weren't quite as strong and certain prefixes didn't exist.

Sure, but no one will want to group with you if they can instead bring a support specialist with boons or a full DPS with more damage. Most people try to play a class where it is strongest. If you're playing solo in easier content of course all bets are off.

I've tried a bunch of open world builds. Staff Condi is probably the easiest, but god it's boring. Axe/Torch/Pistol Condi is more fun than staff, but it lacks good "survival" buttons that make you feel like you're actively blocking damage with your efforts. You'll also feel less "punchy" if playing with power build allies. My favorite open world Mesmer build is Chrono Sword/Sword/Shield using Marauder's gear and the following setup: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiEBwyx7W6WaNdA-e (Evasive mirror vs fencer's finesse is situational.) With this build, I can kill HoT champs and camps of Veterans. (My benchmarks for open world survival are the groups of veteran frogs up by the waypoint in Northwest Auric Basin and the Troll Hero Point Champ in Western Tangled Depths. I can beat these fights reliably without downtime.) I really enjoy the playstyle, as it relies on you actively deploying crowd control, blocks, and invulnerability to survive instead of just beating your head against content. Against champs I keep up 3 clones and deploy my phantasms to do heavy damage, while weaving in sword 2, sword 4, Phantasmal Defender, Gravity Well, Shield 4, and Shield 5 to block damage or CC as needed. I shatter my clones only when I know I can replace them quickly (e.g. when Mirror Images is up) to keep multiple targets up and soak damage. You can also swap in greatsword and kite if you want the absolute easiest experience, but I find that getting in there and dicing enemies is way more fun. This build might not feel strong if you're new to Mesmer and button mashing, but once you know when to deploy your blocks it's insanely powerful. As a bonus actively blocking teaches a skill-set that is useful in fractals and raids.

If you played the content when it was relevant instead of massively outgearing it, the WoW stuff required better execution than say T4 fractals. The problem with GW2 instanced small content is that while you can't outgear content, execution at minimum appropriate gear is much more forgiving (due to the design constraints of the game). This isn't the worst thing in the world - GW2 is probably the most open world fun that I've had with an MMO - but is one weakness of the title. You could argue that both types of play can't be optimized at the same time, as the dodges, immunities, and rezzes that make instanced content sloppy are necessary for fun open world play.

This is an older game with reduced staff. They're likely pressed to do any balancing and testing while creating the next expansion.

Back when the content was current, this was 100% not the case. Maybe many patches later with nerfs and content creep. I wasn't even on the cutting edge for BWL, but it was definitely a slog. And mechanics just got more intricate from there. I mean, a bunch of people couldn't complete WoW heroics without outgearing them, either. And now I guess there are harder modes like Mythic (I left years and years ago)? I think GW2's skill floor is quite low, just like other MMOs. You can faceroll T1s by stacking, not dodging, and doing low DPS, and strikes allow for similar tactics. But when I compare the difficulty of T4s where my groups blow past mechanics using the minimum gear for the instance to say Burning Crusade heroics where skilled players had to pay attention, heal, manage resources, chain CC units, manage more punishing encounter mechanics, it feels like the skill floors are different.

GW2 has an awesome open world combat system, but the instanced stuff is tough to balance around binary 100% damage / 0% damage dodge/Aegis mechanics, lack of intense resource management, and combat rezzing.

I disagree: GW2 has a much, much lower skill floor than challenging MMOs. I mean, you just told us that competent DPS can trivialize and skip mechanics. It also has rezzing, almost no resource management, no threat management, etc. It's a fun game, but you don't play it for challenging instanced combat.

I don't care until it's ready for release. I'm currently busy in-game,.

I'm thinking something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGQAYlRwWYOsGWJmyXWtfA-zRJYqRBfZUdBkeC47A-e Or would it be better to sub fire for might?