starlinvf.1358

Guild Wars: Gauntlets and Grimoire - Coming to iOS and Android this spring. But on a serious note...... Grimoire is just a word used for magic books and scrolls that Teach you magic and artifacing. But the professions already operate in a way that any weapon is entirely usable as a magical focus, and requires no other special properties. A good chunk of Focus weapons are also modeled as scrolls, books, artifacts, and keepsakes to keep with the flavor of being a strictly magic user tool, but can turn any martial weapon into a magical one by virtue of their profession's training.

where Skritts in GW1 lore? No where that I know of. However they are unique to this game unlike Orcs which are in multiple games and books. My objection is primarily relating to the lore of the game not being mixed in with the lore from other games. With unique races the story that this world has to tell is not a tired copy of other stories from other places. It homogenizes the stories when each game world has its Orcs, it’s Elves, etc instead of having their own unique races and unique stories. skritt are akin to dumb skavens arent they?They're almost the polar opposite. Skritt are highly social, and capable of nth level organization that can put many militarizes to shame. They've evolved a high speed communication method through high pitched sounds they make (which keeps hinting back to them being more related to bats then rodents). This enables them to utilize both a form of swarm intelligence and distributed memory, with more members resulting in greater bandwidth, processing power and information storage. A decent sized Skritt Scratch (what they name their homes) can rival the intelligence of individual Asura, and can even figure out some of their technology. But unlike Asura, they do so with none of Ego stroking and frequent in-fighting that are commonly seen in Asuran Krewes. Prior to being forced to the surface by the Destoryers, both races were constantly clashing for territory in their native subterranean homes. Body for Body, Asurans are stronger and have access to better tools. But Skritt reproduce quickly, substantially outnumber them, and operate almost like a hive mind in battle. Large enough Scratches had even been known to go on the offensive, raiding and even utilizing stolen weapons, gear, supplies with respectable proficiency. Its why Asura spend so much effort to try and keep their numbers in check. Their background quirks is amusingly similar to 40k Orks- except instead of their gestalt "wut mek dem Ork teknologee wurk" by literally willing it to be true, Skritt are like a Cel Processor network where more individuals raises the intelligence of the whole group; allowing them to tackle a wide variety of complex problems. There are few Dynamic events, and at least one Personal story chapter, built around this premise of them being the smartest thing in the room. But the main reason this is rarely seen thus far, is largely due to the sheer number of threats they face in the Surface world that keep their numbers heavily suppressed. They're commonly hunted down for being a nuisance, when out and about, their hunting groups tend to be small, and their penchant for shinnies leads them into comically dangerous amounts of life threatening situations. But there are exceptions. Skritt employed for Pact Operations display higher then average intelligence for individual skritt; which seems to afford them an uncharacteristically large amount of self control and risk awareness. Skritt teams have also shown an impressive level of resourcefulness when things get dicey. Some organizations (see Lion Guard, and even Asuran Krewes) use Skritt as a form of cheap labor, scavenging parties, or personal assistants (both with or without fair compensation). I'm actually surprised to have never seen any mention of theorizing a way to create a Skritt "Think Tank" to aid in researching. I'm speculating the logistics to support a scratch of a large enough size or do that is slightly past practical. But despite that, I await the day to come across a lab (probably old inquest) operated by a large group of Skritt, doing legit experiments on other "test subjects" for once.

Anyone brought up the death of Owl yet?

some people think that a perpetual, meaningless geargrind is 'progression' Probably the same people OP called 'real raiders' or that gw2 raids are not raids. What? By progress I mean progress. So killing some bosses for the first time and figuring out their mechanics on your own. Without using guides because there's none of them on internet yet. This is real raiding experience and its totally different than killing bosses with guides. This kind of raiding actually don't exist in gw2. So it's not raids anymore. Its some kind of 10 man dungeon, but certainly not "raid". So the only real raiders are the ones making guides? I'm ok with this. As a Non-real raider I like the fact that nothing changes so the guides don't get out of date, and I don't have to change my build for no reason. Win Win for everyone.

just as general advise: Ele and Guardian have among the highest potential for Cele gear, since they're design makes use of, and scales well, with all stats across most of their skills and traits. Engie is decent second. Thief used to be high on that list, but upcoming changes may knock it down hard. Necro changes may also shift back in favor of Cele; but that call is harder to make until they actually implement something. Ranger is weird because it should be good as a hybrid, but its terrible scaling always works against it.

Type of salvage kits used also matter. Higher grade kits have higher rates of "up tier". You also gotta keep in mind that UIDs have a % rate to up-tier when you open them as well, so that might also be a factor in their salvage tables.

I like how this argument got out of hand, and tried to say I'm wrong "because PvP" without even thinking about the math of the skill itself.

Unless its a good cross over. The problem is ultimately those are hard to find. But when they happen, it changes everything.

The OP is close, but still misses the mark in a major way. The Disparity between PvE and PvP/WvW is largely boiled down to PvE encounters not valuing skill (as in play/counter play), and mostly skewed in favor of overwhelming damage. This is VERY clearly seen in the level of frustration voiced by PvE-exclusive players when Mobs have the ability to mitigate damage output for more then a couple of seconds, be it invul, blind, blocks, movement speed, or teleports. HOT and POF mobs are most notable for the fact that they actually pose a real threat to players, and many players go out of their way to avoiding fighting them (unless overwhelmingly stacked in their favor). The need for splits is a direct result of the sheer difference in how players approach AI Mobs, verses how they approach other players. Many PvP skills are heavily toned down, because the durability threshold of players is significantly lower then most Mobs. Most normal mobs have around 12-15k HP (and average armor), while Vets have somewhere around 75k-100k (and upward). When the average player build can drop 20-30k damage up front, thats lethal to other players, but just a chunk of damage against non-trash mobs. What exacerbates this issue is how defense doesn't scale symmetricly in these encounters. The attack patterns of mobs are part of the problem, since they front load a lot of damage into single hits (in order to make then threatening), but gaining multi-hit and AOE rapidly scales out of control (since the per hit damage is pretty similar in a lot of cases). Increasing the number of mobs in a fight multiplies this effect even further, since player defenses are optimized against specific types of attacks. So mixed attack patterns become a major problem, as defenses are a resource quick to exhaust, and taking hits (even for tanky builds) doesn't sustain for very long. In essence.... much of PvE is designed around a "Tank & Spank" style combat, including HP pools and damage scaling. But then in the Xpacs, it does this thing where mobs scale up massively in their damage output, the variety of attacks and defenses, they group up more, and their compositions start complimenting each other...... but the foundations of Core Mob design still govern how they balance them. Because now matter what skills the Devs give them, the AI still operates on a very narrow minded set of rules that inhibit their dynamics. And players LIKE IT this way, because it makes them predictable and easy to react to. PvE-exclusive players openly admit (and love to play as a victim card) the fact that other players are incredibly adaptive, often unpredictable, and regularly utilize overwhelming force; and they absolutely despise that...... If those were AI Mobs, they'd be decried as being unfair, bad design, and overtly punishing, because they simply got outplayed or made a poor decision during the engagement. I've long been an advocate for PvE mobs displaying more Player like skills and behavior..... but that has to be very finely balanced on the fact that Players in this type of game are on a power fantasy trip, and expect to have the advantage in most scenarios. Enemies that can be ground through like hamburger feeds into this notion even further. So anything that takes significant effort to fight, but doesn't give some major validation (be it reward, or achievement) at end, they simply view it as being not being worth the frustration. If all enemies are like that, they accuse the game of stacking against them.... again, out of frustration. But when your entire combat system is designed around a PvP foundation, with very tight thresholds to avoid snowballing, its nigh impossible to keep that system in harmony with an encounter design that favors almost the exact opposite. A lot of players like the fact that GW2 stacks so much in their favor.... but paradoxically lament a feeling of dissatisfaction with the hollowness of the victory. But the moment you face them with any sort of challenge that demands effort, they cry foul and demand the rules be changed. Even though GW1 had similar issues.... the number of factors in play were much lower, and a lot less complicated. But "solving" this, if you can even call it that, is beyond impossible without having to rework the entire catalog of PvE content to a completely new paradigm. Players will always take the path of least resistance whenever possible. But with all the content being brain dead simple, and players ultimately having no fear of doing grossly inefficient tasks with a low enough investment cost, they will systematically fall back to the most profitable, easy farms they can find, IN ORDER, until its no longer worth the effort at all. Given this set of circumstances, the amount of past content that would need to be updated, and the limited resources Anet has, I'm now completely in favor of them Considering a GW3 in their not so distant future. Take everything learned, and try to get a fresh start from a better design position, and a more usable platform (ie revamped engine), and cut the baggage of legacy system that has grown as far as it could. But unlike GW1 when they started GW2, GW2 is has gone on for waaaay too long, and created too heavy of an investment from players into their accounts, that we're now facing an EverQuest 2 situation. We NEED some kind of fresh start... but no one wants to give up what they already have. As much the new Competitive teams can work to at least bring some of the biggest issues in line..... the simple fact of the matter is that the game is currently being design backwards from the way it should see things. They started on PvP, but eventually went all-in on PvE...... thats not something you easily come back out of. PvP adapts, so it never has to worry about keeping old content around if its not actively helping. PvE is the exact opposite- and players expect it to always be its best version for all eternity. FOMO killed what benefits LS1's format offered. But POF has become a reminder that what players "want" [a bubble of comfort, but constant change] is fundamentally a paradox.

The first thing to understand is that Benchmarking are fundamentally synthetic, is NOT "real world", because of a need for a "Control sample". The way benchmarking typically works is by artificially loading the hardware with something easily repeatable and stable, because its the only effective way to recognize anomalies. But the flaw in this is the stability of the loop itself..... which is compounded by all the testing software using similar, if not identical methods. Real world is lot less consistent. The irony here is that well optimized software can either exacerbate a hardware flaw, or completely cover it up... depending on how the hardware flaw behaves. But one thing most under-optimized games tend to have in common is the low efficiency, sometimes roundabout way they accomplish their tasks. A memory leak is situation where a program fails to free up memory when its no longer used; But its entirely possible for game to use a ton of memory poorly, and not be a memory leak. That conceptual difference is critical to understand what I'm about to say next. Programs, games in particular, do have a habit of loading a system in a consistent way during execution. But 2 different programs typically won't load the same hardware in the same patterns. In the past I've played 5 different game (4 of which were MMOs) that operated in such an inefficient manner, that it could consistantly find hardware flaws that get past benchmarking tools. Even compound issues could be figured out through trial and error. For instance... a memory stability issue persists when swapping channels, but swapping the stick order can clear it up. Swapping back to original order, in the other channel, and it breaks again. And this does make sense, since the OS is more likely to allocate lower memory space first, and eventually the game eats its way into the higher memory space through demand. Since the flaw only manifests with the game using those flawed blocks in a given way, unless you isolate the block and more thoroughly test it, its hard to understand what exactly is wrong, and what the game is doing to trigger it. But the fact putting a different stick clears the problem, and putting the old one back consistently leads to the problem, is pretty clear indicator that something is wrong with the stick (or the stick in conjunction with other hardware elements). One of those games could also suss out bad PCI bus clocks (especially bad overclocks), noisy Power supplies voltages, and created a lot of exposure on CPU Parking behavior. But the reason a lot of people have trouble understanding and accepting issues is largely due to this stigma of a singular source of fault. "This only happens with this one game, so it HAS to be the game's fault", despite the reality of situation being completely different. What about one game having the same issue across multiple computers that are all different? Well..... thats still a crap shoot. There is a very good reason a lot of support forums ask for an extensive list of hardware when looking into wide spread issues. People tend to focus on CPU, Ram amount, GPU and hard drive size as being the only thing important, as those are "over the minimum requirements". But I have seen multiple cases where "wide spread issues" actually landing up with a common factor (thats not the game), and would probably had never been found if not for ONE person having gone stupidly deep into troubleshooting. Planetside 2 had on/off issue with a "No damage bug" that only developed over long play sessions(1-2 hours), but seemed to have no common factor. The Devs were of no help, since they could barely observe it, but couldn't figure out how to recreate it. More over, it seemed to be a client side issue that was impossible to get metrics on, since they had no idea what look for. Everyone first assumed it might be a memory leak (because of long play sessions)..... but Dev telemetry didn't support that hypothesis. And because it seemingly appeared and disappeared between patches, they hadn't been able to figure out what they're touching that sets its off. It wasn't until a player found his way into one of the most insane theories I had ever seen until that point, had stumbled on the common factor almost on accident. In hindsight, I wished had documented it for posterity, since finding all the scattered posts between the forums and reddit are painfully difficult now. In fact, I'm mostly going off memory from around 6 years ago. The Clif's notes version is this...... Essentially when the game sends data packets to the server, it time stamps everything to help account for latency and secure them against man in the middle hacks (which was an unrelated exploit to this story). Damage is validated client side, and literally tells the server if its hitting things. Damage packets get priority in the data stream, so they move to the top of the queue to be sent to the server. Incoming damage is below that, and movement updates below that. Interaction (using terminals) is somewhere near the bottom. The game also has an internal 500ms delay built into the event resolution process... but I can't remember if that was implemented before or after this bug. Anyway, all of game's event handling and time stamping operates off of an internal time counter hooked into a system clock source. Windows has multiple API hooks to access one of many timing and time services, that are driven by 4 or more clock sources available from hardware. The one we're dealing with here is HPET (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Precision_Event_Timer). When HPET is enabled on the system, and used as a time source for the game, it eventually suffers from serious enough clock drift that damage packets start expiring and get dropped by the system. Since this all is happening client side, it does lend credibility to why it nigh impossible to capture in server metrics, but also raised the question as to why "only" damage packets being affected. Some theories where proposed by the community, but (as far as I know) the Devs never weighed in on it. The way this guy found this was noticing PCI bus errors on his system around the same time the bug was active on his client. Don't ask me how he thought to look, or why he was looking... but I don't think anyone would had thought to even check that. He narrowed down the issue to HPET and found a way to check for drift issues using Wintimertester (which I think came from an audio enthusiast forum trying to figure out DSP timing problems for high end audio systems). HPET has been kind of notorious ever since, as I've seen it come up occasionally in other game forums dealing with FPS issues. Disabling it leads to an FPS drop..... But in PS2's case, it also mitigates the No Damage bug and other dsync issues almost completely. Not all systems were affected by this; but a number of popular motherboards were found to be a trend in this issue, but not entirely consistent. Prior to this discovery, there was community lead research that suggested overclocks may be contributing to the rate of decay. But since underclocking wasn't enough to extend playtime by significant amount, and affected FPS in some systems, it wasn't considered viable as a work around. In hindsight, since HPET works off a chip in the south bridge, it sort of makes sense... but wouldn't be particularly useful. Keep in mind that popular benchmarking software never came close to discovering any of these kinds of anomalies under their most brutal stress modes, since they probably aren't even looking for them. On top of which, not that long ago it was discovered GPU manufacturers were doctoring drivers to give better Benchmark scores; something that compromises the integrity of Benchmarks and methodology. Benchmarking and Gaming performance were never easy to begin with...... but with the level of trust and quality from once highly regarded studios completely tanking, even seasoned gamers are having a very hard time navigating the seemingly endless stream of issues to get a proper handle on whats going on with hobby. Gaming as an industry has become worth too much money, and its attracted all the problems that come with it.

They've never been sold in the Gem store. Closest being a deluxe upgrade for existing owners for like $15 worth of gems iirc

If you really want an analysis, its mainly the gaming culture exists today. Everything about guilds in this game (outside of WvW upgrades) revolves around personal rewards.... and thats the critical flaw in the system. Raids have decayed into this state just as rapidly, as its devolved into a weekly Routine thats only really done because the rewards are capped... and not doing them is simply giving up potential resources. We have things to spend them on- but theres an upper limit where we don't have any more "want" that the rewards were being used to push us toward. Without that artificial driver, players have no reason to congregate on a regular basis. WvW doesn't suffer from this, as theres a level of social dynamics that makes the activity itself worth doing for its own entertainment. But it took bolstering the internal reward system to stop feeling like a Net Loss, because PvE rewards have stronger psychological hooks that were overpowering the social aspect of that game mode. Instead WvW's current state has an entirely different problem in that nothing is supporting social dynamics. Expanding guild missions to Raids is pointless, because it doesn't address the underlying problem; and in reality is more likely to increase Guild toxicity over time, once individuals get bored with "helping the guild for personal benefits", and going back to the current "I got mine" attitude. Making the game harder to force group play won't work either. WoW Classic's spiral into "just like retail" took less then 3 weeks to happen. Nearly everything was meticulously recreated to reflect the actual state of the game in 1.2, EXCEPT Player attitudes are vastly different then they were back in 2005. Players were initially more cooperative, and displayed a level of empathy no longer thought possible. But as more and more people starting hitting the "end game" stride, the community began to break down. Apathy is growing, and no would expend effort unless it directly and immediately benefited them. Competition for farming spots started getting heated. Etiquette once at the forefront, steadily fading in favor of opportunistic behavior. Not everyone is a jerk. But there used to be a clear difference between Classic and Retail that everyone was hoping for; but now that difference is barely noticeable. Gamer's attitudes toward Guilds has changed massively in the last several years... even in the last few years. Reduced to just another social circle of "acquaintances", organized by how much benefit you gain from them. Not a lot has been done to understand this new dynamic. And even among the strongest "guilds" floating around operate as if they are simply a Fanbase for some central personality that everyone rallies around. On its face this sounds like its always been..... but I mark the difference as Guild "Leaders" used to (and had to be) competent leaders. Where as now, they are handled more like Celebrities. But since you're still caught up in the excitement of leveling a Guildhall (an easy goal to establish for the guild to focus on), you're blind to the destination you're heading to. I'm part of a 9 Guild Meta-Guild, with each guild hall maxed out. A grand total of 2 dozen players still play on the regular, and most of them are part of the same Fractal/Raid static group. We still do guild missions weekly to cap out favor.... and the only reason for that is to keep making Guild Banners. Ultimately theres nothing stopping you from succeeding in leveling the guild hall. But theres no reason to be in a rush to get there. Maxing out a Guildhall doesn't improve your guild beyond personal benefits to each member. In fact, the Guildhall itself is, by design, just a money pit.

Sometimes it is.... but probably not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

easier to look up https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_swords So blue colored swords with various glow effects...... https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bioluminescent_Swordhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bolthttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caithe%27s_Crystal_Bloom_Swordhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dreamthistle_Sword_Skinhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Holographic_Zaphttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ley_Line_Sword_Skinhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistforged_Hero%27s_Swordhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Old_Ascalonhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scion%27s_Clawhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soaring_Sword_Skinhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tempest_Sword_Skinhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Super_Sword_Skinhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blade_of_the_Scion

Whats wrong with the Naruto run?

Beards for Sylvari! Treebeards

to back track a second, there are 6 major stat combinations in the current meta. Core- BerserkersHOT - Vipers, Minstrels and MaraudersPOF - Harrier and Diviners Berserker and Marauders are the 2 Go-To for power damage builds. They're basically identical in fucntion, except marauders trades some effective damage for extra vitality. Because open world heavily favors power damage, 90% of people tend to run these. The other 10% are people who run their Raid/Fractal/WvW builds in open world out of laziness (not really a detriment, as those modes train a higher caliber of combat prowess). Since Berskers is the easiest to get, most people will run that, and maybe mix in a couple of Soldiers or Valkyries for a little extra durability. If you can get access to Mauraders (via trinkets or choosy armor) thats a stronger overall pairing with Bersker stats. Vipers is the defacto Condition damage stat. Condi damage is not seen often in Open world, since most builds have long ramp up times, and Vipers is as Glassy as Berserkers. However, they excel in long fights, and are usually at the top of DPS charts for Raids and high level Fractals (thanks to bosses having 10s of Millions in HP). Minstrels and Harrier are the defacto Healing build stats. Minstrels incorporates Toughness as a main stat, and is used mainly for Tanks and WvW support builds. Harriers is Power/Healing/Concentration, used for Non-tank Healers in Raids and Fractals, since Toughness affects mob aggro. The Most prominent users are Druid and Healing Renegade in Raids. Diviners is the defacto Boon Duration stat, and is used in any Boon focused, non-healer build. Renegade, Chrono and Firebrand raid/fractal builds use it as their baseline stat. They're sometimes mixed into open world builds when boon duration is a huge benefit- but a lot classes got nerfed to the point where only raid/fractal group comps can justify the damage trade off. Something to keep in mind is that there is HUGE jump in difficulty in the Expansions, making semi-glass cannons the paradoxically optimal solution to survival. Fights against trash mobs in HOT and POF escalate rapidly.... so faster TTKs is actually the best way to succeed. But running glass is inherently risky; so you have to get used to using all your available defense skills, debilitating conditions and defensive boons in an intelligent fashion. Aegis and Protection can go from worthless to game changing if you know what you're doing. Blinds and well timed CCs can completely oppress a target. But this shifts again in POF, where damage is slightly lower then HOT, but mobs are a lot harder to shut down and employ much stronger CCs. Here AOE avoidance and positioning is incredibly valuable, but is no less difficult. Depending on what class you're running, you want to get them setup with whatever Espec power build that class favors as soon as possible (and using Zerks gear you can easily obtain in Core areas). If you didn't do map complete in Core, the Especs aren't going immediately available.... so finding an HP train is the best solution before trying to strike out on your own. Most Especs are heavily power skewed in their Grand Master traits... so only having them half unlocked is actually worse then running a full core spec. HOT HP trains are very common on the weekends; so its worth setting aside the couple hours needed to get Gliding unlocked (to be able to join the HP train), and then the 2-3 hours for the HP Train to get an Especs unlocked. Doing the opening POF mission out of order, to unlock the Raptor mount, is also a major advantage. You'll only need the other stats as builds justify them; but every class has a viable Zerks power build that can carry it through most situations. Fights are going to be frustrating at first... but as you learn how enemies fight, and learn counter strategies to them, zerker builds are entirely manageable.

You have understand that Druid is a net loss in personal damage, no matter the build. Its just that Condition builds are less hampered, since bleed are loaded in Skirmishing (which you usually take anyway), and Poison in wilderness survival (which can boost defenses on the side). Soulbeast offers additional passive damage modifiers for power, where as Druid's are stacking buffs that require a lot of upkeep to maintain. Druids also suffered from from several nerfs that now require stat investment for any of their support skills to have potency. Healing without Healing power is so weak, Support SB pets and merged skills are actually stronger. All the might you generate doesn't upkeep well without Boon Duration bonuses. CA isn't designed to be used defensively, and its resource mechanic makes its availability spotty without investing in skills that give regeneration (and have a steady source of minor damage so it can tick). Its not impossible to play..... its just incredibly frustrating now, since they purposefully dismantled its base line to force Raiders to invest stats into it. But if you do so, it takes away even more damage on top of your poor native damage scaling. Despite working on similar damage buffs, both Ele and Guardian can work around this problem by their design being a lot more Hybrid friendly. Their support functions are also more inline to their overall class design, and their skills effects don't have the kind of "either/or" contention problem that is built into Ranger's design premise. Cele is a viable option for both classes, they scale better with any stats you give them, and they have a lot of mechanical ways to deal with problems; where as Ranger needs to build toward specific use cases, and treats it defenses more like a resource to be managed. Rangers SHOULD be mechanically friendly toward hybrid damage.... but their poor scaling and single threaded skill functionality undoes any potential outside of PvP. I've been wanting to go back to Power Druid for a long time...... but soulbeast just offers so much better utility and damage, because Druid baseline healing is too weak, and most of their support abilities only function properly in static fights. Even Power Firebrand would perform better- and thats a build that is difficult to make work right. Yet its still more satisfying and effective then Power Druid.

DPS meters prove DPS builds are the only builds that are good at anything. If you're gonna suck at DPS, at least be useful and be a healer..... not that I need it, since I'm so good at the game, only cheaters and cheap 1-shot mechanics will kill me.

Which is why I set my in-game clock to Server Time (UTC), so schedule is easy to remember.

Well I keep saying. Anet could always do a go fund me for WvW upgrades. We would likely fund the project if they just said "Hey everybody we need some help funding improvement for WvW, please s help".... Drop the ego and just ask for help. Except that doesn't fly in a situation where you have a commercially released product, is supposedly profitable to some degree, and are now expecting the players (who are already disappointed, and already spending significant money by now) to foot a major investment risk, without the accountability and contractual enforcement options (because crowdfunding makes that more difficult), on a Dev team whose already questionable productivity is what brought us into this situation in the first place, AND hoping that enough people actually pay into the crowdfunding campaign, when there is basically zero trust, zero recourse for unsatisfactory results, and they already have the collateral available to take out a business loan. There is not nearly enough good will and established track record for this look good. PGI games tried to crowdfund a new space game called Transverse in 2014. The only game they had backing them up was MechWarrior Online (launched a year prior, and crowdfunded successfully), which constantly teetered on the edge of spiraling into a Trash fire, between its Monetization model, barebones gameplay situated on a Online Service Platform, a laundry list of MechWarrior staple features that was sold on, but were not even close to deployment, their attitude toward the public, and had only survived on a combination of serviceable combat and a total lack of alternatives in the Franchise. And its on that note they decided to try their hand at crowdfunding a second game in the wake of the Space craze created by Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Limit Theory, Star point Gemini, and No Man's Sky (having been announced earlier in the year)...... It was, to put it bluntly, an absolute disaster. They mimicked the crowdfunding model Star Citizen was using, but botched the approach so hard that the entire internet rallied against them. They barely raised 5 figures in crowdfunding in short time it was up, and even that amount was highly suspect. .... And this was at the absolute height of the Crowdfunding Bubble. The big red flag here is the Status of the Company itself. Most of the game's it was competing against (and to a lesser extent, crowdfunding as a whole) were either start ups, small studios between publisher projects, or projects rejected by publishers in the past. In no case that I was aware of at the time, were any of those studios having the backing of an successful MMO that could generate ongoing funding for them. If MWO was profitable, there is NO reason they couldn't get a loan or publisher backing (which would be needed, because Transverse is an MMO). And if MWO wasn't profitable (presumably due to the game being bad), what reason would anyone have trust them to deliver a good game with a self sustaining business model. This situation also shares a lot of Hall Marks of Comcept and Inafune's fiasco with trying to Crowdfund "Red Ash" (an MMO/Anime franchise) while they were mid-development of Mighty No.9. This kicked off a series of debacles, as concerns were raised about splitting studio attention when they weren't even in the home stretch of a high profile KS project, the ambitious nature Red Ash (cross media franchises were notoriously prone to production problems), and rising tensions over the Development of Mighty No.9 where Comcept had since ran 2 more CF campaigns for extended content like English Voice acting and DLC, but still had an air of uncertainty of how far along the game actually was. Trying to GoFundme WvW would end up being an even bigger disaster for the following reasons.... This is an established Studio, backed by one the biggest publishers in the IndustryThis an existing game, and an existing game feature thats failed to deliver on multiple occasionsTrying to crowdfund this is so bad form, and so against the spirit of Crowdfunding, it would only serve to amplify the current mistrust of crowdfunding by the public, and further build mistrust with Anet over accusations of Mismanagement, wasted resources, and money grubbing. ..... because, again, this isn't some start up or studio living off residuals.... They have access to money, and a means to carry the risk. Crowdfunding is best reserved for situations where there are no other means to carry the risk, typically in light of a niche market share or low returns.Anet doesn't currently have the good will, nor track record to soften concerns that the project itself (if fully funded) would fall on its face by the end..... if it even reaches the end. WvW itself is NOT a "one-and-done" project either. Its going to have to continuously adapt, grow, and learn..... turning the GoFundMe into an ongoing money sink (think Patreon, except its multi million dollar company). Why can't that money be generated by the conceivably high ROI of cosmetics and goodies from the Gem Store? The very thing meant to support the game as a whole!There is no way they could spin this without coming off as Incompetent, Arrogant, or Desperate..... none of which their image can afford right now.

I understand the UI bit, but I disagree with it being any more complex than many other games already on consoles. Even strictly just speaking about MMOs, FFXIV functions perfectly on controller with many, many more required inputs than GW2. I could easily see this game adapted to a controller layout, and many have done it successfully already (as far as the game allows, anyways). As for key-button mapping, the main issue we're concerned about is that key mapping for UI navigation (inventory, dialogue, etc) simply does not exist. A mouse (or virtual mouse) is absolutely required to navigate menus, which is annoying for someone using those "stable, non-intrusive" mapping options. (looks at video of modern FF14 combat) I'm noticing the combat mostly revolves around spank and tank, which I'm guessing is how they got away that much animation flourish. Which is really bugging me, because the game looks like it should operate like a fighting game. But to the point.... number of buttons usually isn't the problem (this game uses a very small amount overall), but more to do with how the game handles context and precision. Controllers absolutely suck for games which need to specific targets out of a group... and most console games have to get around this via auto targeting and having mobs spaced out or enforcing collision rules. Just adding support, but not putting in effort for proper QoL, makes the gesture detrimental just on the assumption that if its official, its supposed to work in some capacity. Kind of like how Action Cam happened, but is barely usable in its ideal fringe case. The thing is that the game is conductive to controllers in some respects, but not in others. And this completely ignoring the menu problem, which isn't that hard to remedy since its already grid based to begin with. My main concern is the significance of dodge in faster combat (which controller would be good for) and how that effects target engagement, disengaging, constant movement, and the need for target switching; the game's asymmetric movement rates (which is going to be a problem with controller turn speed), and the sheer number of AOEs that lead to a lot of high speed repositioning and face rotation thats proven over the years to suck hard without a robust target lock or auto targeting system. FF14 looks like an action game, but doesn't play like one. GW2 is a high stakes, high speed hack and slash, but is actually kind of broken because the Mobs you fight operate on a substantially different design premise. As much as I like the combat in GW2 for being more 3PV action Hack and Slash, I'm also keenly aware of how much the KBM control system is picking up the slack for the poor implementation of combat the Mob side of the equation. I've tried using a controller set up before (for research purposes to help a friend), and its really awkward and inefficient for the kind of speed and playstyle I operate in. Ground targeting, and the inherent limitations of trying to use snap-targeting, makes it difficult to use even when you pick targets correctly.... now try think about that using only tab for target selection. About Face is also weird to use, just because of the mental calibration for orientation, and subsequent delay in getting into the correct position you want to face. Free casting also gets weird, and thats something I use a lot with different movement skills (since a lot of boss fights aren't actually well tuned). The whole game sits in this weird space between Hack/ game design, fighting game ideas, and handles (inconsistently I might add) certain game concepts as if this were an FPS shooter. And its mostly in those latter points that the Controller's issues stand out to the point of disruption. yeah..its not ideal, But its defintely playable and quite comfortable to use. Especially when the alternative is "can't play because it hurts too kitten bad". i had to leave the game for almost 2 years because I could no longer use a keyboard. I returned when i heard about action cam. Controller players mainly play in action cam mode...and I've never used about face, I can turn the camera more than fast enough(You have to really mess with emulated mouse speed). I only have difficulty targetting mesmers and thiefs..mainly because they bounce around like crazy. But then there's plenty of people who struggle with that using kb+m. Telling them how bad the controller was for you, isn't helpful when a player has no alternative and wants to try the game.The reason I point it out is because this isn't something that can afford being half-assed just to have. Given their track record with half-way implementations, and slow response to issues, it requires Anet's "full ass" to get anywhere worthwhile; since their UI team has among the lowest production bandwidth, and ties in extremely heavily with what/how the engine team can make forward facing for them. UI and UX systems are incredibly touchy as is, and tiny shortfalls or design mistakes snowball rapidly in action oriented games. The implementation should be conductive to an overall improvement to the game; NOT a kluge or trade off.

I understand the UI bit, but I disagree with it being any more complex than many other games already on consoles. Even strictly just speaking about MMOs, FFXIV functions perfectly on controller with many, many more required inputs than GW2. I could easily see this game adapted to a controller layout, and many have done it successfully already (as far as the game allows, anyways). As for key-button mapping, the main issue we're concerned about is that key mapping for UI navigation (inventory, dialogue, etc) simply does not exist. A mouse (or virtual mouse) is absolutely required to navigate menus, which is annoying for someone using those "stable, non-intrusive" mapping options. (looks at video of modern FF14 combat) I'm noticing the combat mostly revolves around spank and tank, which I'm guessing is how they got away that much animation flourish. Which is really bugging me, because the game looks like it should operate like a fighting game. But to the point.... number of buttons usually isn't the problem (this game uses a very small amount overall), but more to do with how the game handles context and precision. Controllers absolutely suck for games which need to specific targets out of a group... and most console games have to get around this via auto targeting and having mobs spaced out or enforcing collision rules. Just adding support, but not putting in effort for proper QoL, makes the gesture detrimental just on the assumption that if its official, its supposed to work in some capacity. Kind of like how Action Cam happened, but is barely usable in its ideal fringe case. The thing is that the game is conductive to controllers in some respects, but not in others. And this completely ignoring the menu problem, which isn't that hard to remedy since its already grid based to begin with. My main concern is the significance of dodge in faster combat (which controller would be good for) and how that effects target engagement, disengaging, constant movement, and the need for target switching; the game's asymmetric movement rates (which is going to be a problem with controller turn speed), and the sheer number of AOEs that lead to a lot of high speed repositioning and face rotation thats proven over the years to suck hard without a robust target lock or auto targeting system. FF14 looks like an action game, but doesn't play like one. GW2 is a high stakes, high speed hack and slash, but is actually kind of broken because the Mobs you fight operate on a substantially different design premise. As much as I like the combat in GW2 for being more 3PV action Hack and Slash, I'm also keenly aware of how much the KBM control system is picking up the slack for the poor implementation of combat the Mob side of the equation. I've tried using a controller set up before (for research purposes to help a friend), and its really awkward and inefficient for the kind of speed and playstyle I operate in. Ground targeting, and the inherent limitations of trying to use snap-targeting, makes it difficult to use even when you pick targets correctly.... now try think about that using only tab for target selection. About Face is also weird to use, just because of the mental calibration for orientation, and subsequent delay in getting into the correct position you want to face. Free casting also gets weird, and thats something I use a lot with different movement skills (since a lot of boss fights aren't actually well tuned). The whole game sits in this weird space between Hack/ game design, fighting game ideas, and handles (inconsistently I might add) certain game concepts as if this were an FPS shooter. And its mostly in those latter points that the Controller's issues stand out to the point of disruption.

But SWTOR was still in an age where society didn't really care about games as a media. Now that its so widely accepted that the Satanic Panic MO can't be easily used against it, its instead become a vehicle to force a message despite its roots in free expression...... just like social media. And TV. And Movies. And Books. And stories. and Witch burnings. and sacrificing humans for a better harvest.

Except what the templates are for, and the function they fill, were NOT intentionally manufactured into the game's design..... out of everything we complain about it, this argument around build templates is by far the most idiotic- because it founded on the idea of this being the fruition of a 7 year plan of marked inconvenience, of which Anet turned down multiple opportunities to sell a solution to, across 5 major low points in the company's financial history, culminating in this glorious moment where the cash grab attempt can finally pay off. Or, just maybe...... this is yet another instance in a long history of this player base, where we finally realized a concept existed (where in all the years leading up to it, we didn't), and now feel entitled to it, resulting in scrapping together every possible reasoning we can find to justify our entitlement. Sometimes it is justified, usually its not..... As much as I don't like how they structured the way they are charging for it...... I am under no illusion that this was part of some long running conspiracy to ruin the game unless we paid for something. When by all accounts the most effort they put in to limit the system's potential is to make the default match the number of build states being stored prior to the change (ie 3 to match the 3 game modes, and 2 equipment because PvP doesn't use equipment), but now with the ability to re-purpose all of them. Then theres the context of the state to the industry 7 years ago, where GW2's Buy once for access, and pay for extra non-power convenience was considered business model suicide, yet was the most consumer friendly option known at the time for being completely Ala Cart, not overly restrictive by design, and the desire for upgrades scaled directly with how much time the player sinks into each session, and the level of loot genration they accomplish. IE: you only really needed things like bag upgrades once you hit the status of hardcore farmer, carrying multiple gear sets (in a time zerks was the only meta), and/or refused to make merchant breaks to process your loot. All of these "Problems" with limitations of the system only became prominent AFTER the following happened over the game's life time..... Increased rate of incoming loot across the boardthe addition of new game modes that justified different build typesEspecs and Balance changes that increased the combat potential of all classes by orders of magnitudenew festivals that generate substantial to insane amounts of coin/drops/value through their activity rewardsa huge push to bring justification to more diverse Stat Combos in metaa major jump in average gold income of players through dailies the increased popularity of farming an increased interest in crafting and collections (brought on skin rewards of all things)The game was NOT designed around massive inconvenience.... and would only really qualify as Minor under the game's launch conditions, because the game was already abnormally generous when it comes to "salvage trash" that you needed to process. Something by the way, didn't require you to go to your bank to do, since you could deposit all crafting materials into the bank directly from the Inventory menu; and only needed access to a steady supply of salvage kits (which was the main reason you would visit a merchant). The early game was the most notably restrictive, NOT because of the number bags you could have, but the size the bags themselves and the level of affordability in gold. You couldn't buy bigger bags with gems, and the bag slots unlocked with gems made no economic sense with anything smaller then 15 slot bags. Once you got up to 60 slots in total, the full inventory "problem" only becomes noticeable once ever couple hours.... and only really start to happen in areas which lack frequent rest stops and are mob heavy (like Orr). Its a massive chain of cause and effect we're looking at here. The reason the above happens, is because it broke the cycle of Farming habits established in more conventional MMOs (see WoW and Korean F2Ps). We actually became less aware of loot drops (and static farming) as the game conditioned us to be more focused on Event Participation. The "drops scale with player level" also biased drops toward items and materials that were most profitable to us in the long run. Even with the devaluing of silk in crafting didn't seem out of place, since Gossamer was used in a higher tier of gear, and silk was "common, but still vendor trash" to the more rare Gossamer that people actually used. The Drop rate itself was also not that high, but much higher then other MMORPGs. Magic find was not common, so rare items were actually rare. But with Magic find being low also affecting the grade of drops in terms of vendor value, also kept the value of Coin pretty high. (The reason I mention that is because it took months before the player based finally understood how the reward system was laid out, and how to use the TP properly. Even today, a surprising amount of people don't use the TP at all, and most folks don't know how to take advantage of seasonal price trends) And to end cap this whole thing..... its start to bug me how much people are unwilling to pay for anything, even if its just paying attention, unless you directly target their impulsive tendencies. At times it feels like we've lost the ability to judge value, unless those values are judged for us. You can see it permeating into how Consumers (including gamers) react to things based on how it was advertised, and how effective it was drawing attention to specific things.