[Strikes to raids, or na?]

@"mindcircus.1506" said:Strikes are designed to be repeatable. They are not just for inexperienced players. The scaled rewards are an incentive to improve on your next run should you not get "gold". But I guess ignoring this and saying "it shouldn't be this way" is meta Armchair MMO dev'ing and dank forum memes.Yes, they are designed to be repeatable. Having 3 chests you could get as reward 1 per run would also accomplish repeatability within the same day. I also know that the intention of adding a 3stage loot for time it takes to clear is to incentivise getting better, and it does, BUT it has the downside of attracting bullying on players that are not at the level of completing it at the highest reward stage, and given the MAIN purpose of strikes (said by anet themselves) was to be a bridge between open world and raids, said improvement incentive then does have a negative impact despite the intended result of the mechanic.

[Questions on the new Draconic Wings Backpack Glider Combo]

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:This is how the Elder Dragons win y'know. Sure we may have taken out 3 of them, but the rest of them have figured it out: they cannot defeat the commander, so they are instead trying to assimilate the commander, turn the commander into one of them!

Next thing you know you'll be riding a dragon everywhere in PvE, and the banner you grab for in WvW will have a dragon emblem on it, and.....uh oh..

Resistance is futile.

[QOL: Setting for invite rejection.]

I have not personally been targeted for random guild invites, but i have been randomly invited to parties and squads while not being at ALL interested in joining. And yes, it is not much work to decline manually, but why should i have to in the first place?

@Randulf.7614 said:I'd prob lean against encouraging a squad auto decline one though. It's hard enough getting people to join squads (and squads are important to be a part of) without discouraging the practice.If they don't want to join the squad, why should they be pestered by invites to the squad?

[[Suggestion] Guild and Guild Hall Quality of Life improvements (updated: 15 March 2022) [Merged]]

@"Makarow.3028" said:

• Future Guild Hall upgrades like, with some new stuff (for example music console, library for lore books, new music tracks, mount/glider try-out merchants etc.)More guild hall upogrades would be nice. Hopefully one of them will be "No more still looking like a run down abandoned place, but completely restored new place"Is it too much to ask for for the GH to end up being fixed not just partially cleaned?
• Guild Permissions reworkAbsolutely. Why in the first place Anet decided it was a good idea to let everyone that can invite players also kick everyone below themselves, i have no idea.Kicking and inviting players should be their own seperate categories.
• Guild MissionsMore Guildmissions would be really nice yes. more of existing types and perhaps even some new types.
• New decorationsMore decorations would be nice, but there should also be some decorations that CHANGE the stuff that is already there. even if you decorate it to the mists and back, the main parts of the guildhall is still the same thing in all guildhalls of that area, making them all too similar to one another.

[100 Hours Sunk into Guild Wars 2 (A veteran MMORPG players takeaway)]

i actually agree with OP alot. The only reason i have sunken almost 11K hours into this game is because this is where my friends are. I have 1 friend FFXIV, One playing WoW, One that used to play ESO and one that used to play SWTOR. SO myself i have stopped playing SWTOR, WOW and mostly ESO. But i do play FFXIV still. But i always return to spend more hours in GW2. Not because of the story. GW2 story is only mediocre while FFXIV story is a work of art. The progression scheme in ffxiv is existant but slow paced enough that as a casual i can still keep pace. The reason i return to GW2 all the time and MAKE reasons why i "need" a new legendary is to have something to do in a game my friends are.Had a few more friends started actively playing any of the other mentioned MMO's i would probably be gone from gw2 forever.

[Strikes to raids, or na?]

@"Greymantle.9168" said:Since Strike Missions feel like they are meant to bridge the gap between normal pve and raids, has anyone doing SMs daily made the crossover? I have the itch, and have been gearing my characters to do the basic stuff (alacren/q-hb/druid/dps), and they've been turning out pretty well. The problem I see is that groups I'm in get through tougher fighters, even though sometimes it's messy and we get through, you always have people crying that the dps is too low, or we sucked because we didn't get a gold time. Kind of inspired and discouraged at the same time.Strikes are meant as a gap between open world PvE and Raids, yes.The problem here comes for a couple of reasons.

1. There is already built into alot of the community that "only 30k dps is good enough". Which offcourse is false. This stems from meta elitism and a refusal to understand that the perfect meta is not the only thing that works.
2. There is a scaled reward that get better the faster you are. That sort of thing is good for a Challenge Mote, but not for a game-mode designed to weave new inexperienced players into endgame raids.That being said, not everyone is of a mentality that only the meta executed perfectly is good enough, they are actially in the minority, but those that do employ that mentality are usually very vocal and ends up drowning out the nicer players that do speak up and many nicer players also tend to not speak up and just stop doing the content due to this outrage (Often referred to as toxicity)

@"Oogabooga.3812" said:But i will not be returning to raids anytime soon, because despite having meta builds and knowing the mechanics, your group can still wipe too easily if the wrong mistake is made. Strike missions and fractals are more forgiving and much more my style.Part of the problem there is actually meta builds. They are VERY good when things go right, but one teeny mistake can make them very bad compared to many other builds. And due to the higher skill level needed to perform optimally in them many players are unable to focus on the fight at hand and the mechanics.If more people chose a build with a little more forgiving rotation and more survivability then they could all focus more on mechanics and still do more than enough DPS and the fights would be easier.Off-course build sites are a part of why so many players use a build they aren't really capable of playing because they only show the few best builds, not all viable builds.A meta build benched to 33K dps done perfectly. not being able to play it correctly can easy make you drop to 18K dps. while a build that is more forgiving top benched at only 24k dps might only drop to 21k dps when mistakes are done. making it less optimal for the perfect play, hence not showing on many such sites, but actually more optimal to play for most players doing raids since mistakes are made. I myself has gotten to one of these "less optimal" builds and are having a higher actual dps in matches since the mistakes i make is not as crucial.

[Ascended trinket]

@"Roche.7491" said:FotM is utter BS. Waste of a million hours. What I can farm there in days, I can farm in real world in a few hours. Then convert gems to gold.

There is a ton of stuff that cannot be bought with gold that you can get from FotM.Also, what is the point of "playing" a game if you just buy everything with real money? Nothing to play for then.

[Making PVE viable again]

To some of the issues that surfaced in this thread:

Issue 1: Things in open world are too easy and doesn't yield good enough loot.First solution offered by OP: Making a hard mode with better loot.This would not solve the problem. It would be better loot, but only for those that are good, not those that has hit their personal skill-cap and find open world to be challenging enough as it is. So the hardcore players that currently are able to get the most loot and profit by the casuals having to farm gold to buy would still profit and casuals would still be in the same old ballpark. And even as it is its more about what you choose to do not the difficulty that makes the loot difference. Talking purely open world here, as the Opening post is for Open World PvE.Second solution offered: Make the maps that exist already harder and drop more loot depending on the amount of players in the map.This would only create more problems than it solves, as the players that find open world to be challenging as it is would then be unable to play the game, get frustrated and quit. And said hardcore players that benefits from the hardmode would still benefit from this more than casuals and distance the gap even more.

Issue 2: Magic Find not being effective.Magic Find(MF) IS effective. However a understanding of HOW loot is rolled and how RNG(Random Number Generator) plays a role in determining loot behind the scenes is needed to see that is is. This isn't a very complex thing to understand but some people will understand it easier and better than others. And OP seems to not understand that.First off, Magic Find (MF) is not the chance to get something, it is the INCREASE in the chance to get a higher category.

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Consider this table of loot for no MF(0%):0-35 Junk (Grey) 36 in 64 chance36-48 Basic(White) 13 in 64 chance49-55 Fine(Blue) 7 in 64 chance56-60 Masterwork(Green) 5 in 64 chance61-62 Rare(Yellow) 2 in 64 chance63-63 Exotic(Orange) 1 in 64 chance

---

If you have 100% MF that same table would look like this:0-2 Junk (Grey) 3 in 64 chance3-29 Basic(White) 26 in 64 chance30-44 Fine(Blue) 14 in 64 chance45-55 Masterwork(Green) 10 in 64 chance56-60 Rare(Yellow) 4 in 64 chance61-63 Exotic(Orange) 2 in 64 chance

---

When rolling for loot the server will first roll a number between 0 and 63 and that is the loot rarity category you will get loot from.Each category, starting with the highest category (the on on the bottom of the table) gets its chance doubled (increased by the MF but in this case doubled) and the last category is then trimmed off to reflect the changes. This table would loose the Junk category at Approximately 107.14% MF, meaning that from that point on we are unable to get junk items from places that are affected by magic find. The table GW2 uses to roll for loot is scaled in such a way that the junk category would be completely gone once we reach 1 000% MF (One Thousand). So while a 300% MF does make you loot 4 times as many exotic rarity items, that is also true for the categories below it until you reach the lowest one still available, that would diminish it chances of being dropped. So magic find it not very easily noticed as working.

Issue 3: Legendaries taking too long to make.That is completely dependent on how much you play AND what content you play. The fastest i have seen a gen 2 legendary being farmed is 3 weeks, starting with near to nothing since he had the day before he decided to start, sold out and used all his resources to craft a different legendary. And personally by not going at it hardcore at all have gotten a gen 2 legendary in about 2 months starting from near to nothing (except karma). So legendaries can take a long time if you play very little and spend most of the time doing stuff that don't actually give any rewards.But even just running in Queensdale and killing moas give rewards that can be sold on TP for money, albeit not a good farm. There are several farms that do not require one to engage in endgame content or do repetitive stuff to farm. Doing daily HoT metas, Daily achievement, Daily Home-instance, Daily Guild Hall, Season 4 Map meta, Daily World bosses. Or if you want more repetitive farms there are champ and event farms, that can be done both solo and in groups. Although those are not as effective as Meta Events. Repeated runs of Silverwastes Meta, Dragonfall Meta, Domain of Istan Meta. These are great repeatable Meta events for farming, but require a group. For non open world content there is also fractals, dungeons, raids(more on raid later in the post).*These are pure materials gathering and you sell said materials, or save them for legendaryEven playing casually if what you are doing while playing is aimed towards getting materials/gold then it is not a daunting process to get a legendary.Earning an average of 35 Gold worth each day (The value of the materials you earn and need for the legendary + the gold you have after selling all you do not need) is not very hard. After 60 days (2 months almost) that nets you 2100 gold worth(remember, materials you have earned counts). Currently Verdarach costs just under 2050 gold. Meaning you earn enough to get Verdarach in those 60 days, and have some leftover.Completing a reward track in WvW does no require continuous play. Every 5 minutes you accumulate reward track points that is saved. When you log out of WvW and log in again later you keep the participation level you had when you logged out, so you do not need to build that up again. Activate all the 1h boosts and play WvW for 1 hour that day, and then repeat another day you feel like playing WvW 5 days total, no need to them just after each other either, and you have yourself a reward track complete for that lovely gift of battle. If you like playing WvW that way, keep going to get some more mystic clovers, if not then stop there.

@"Stajan.4581" said:Now most not all but most PVE players will not or can not go into WvW or PvP to run reward tracks this is an issue when you need clovers as gambling is not worth losing the clovers you have and it take s mystic coin each time you gamble to try and get a return on the clovers you need.You do not gamble the mystic clovers you already have in an attempt to get new ones.When you fail most of the time you will get other materials out that you do need for the legendary or materials you can sell to regain most, or sometimes even earn on the attempt. You can also get mystic coins as a "Failure".On the topic of mystic coins. Yes they are slow to acquire if you are for the task of not purchasing any on the TP, but the in-game market model Anet has made for GW2 is that materials such as mystic coins are meant to be purchased.Just like real life, how fast you mange to get something done depends on how you prioritise.

Issue 4: "Trading Post Guild"Yes there are guilds and even subreddits dedicated to selling materials outside of the trading post to circumvent the trading fee. However they are still dictated by the trading post. Because the man selling his materials cannot charge more than the instant buy offer on the trading post, otherwise the buyer would just buy from there, faster safer cheaper. The seller will not sell it for cheaper than 15% less than the instant sell on the trading post because then he would loose money and would rather just sell it on the trading post, faster safer and for more profit. The seller would also not flood the TP because he would then effectively diminish the potential value of his own product. Also there is such a vast amount of materials selling via TP rather than via such guilds/subreddits that their impact is negligible in the long run. With exception of certain high value items such as some infusions. Mystic coins are a product that does sell a lot via such places but are still sold in vast quantities from TP so while yes the price would be affected had they all sold via TP it would not be by much, especially since Anet has adjusted mystic coin acquisition and usage to try and maintain a certain value of them.

Issue 5: Raid and toxicityFirst of all, toxicity is not a binary thing, there are varying degree of toxicity. Just like in real life everything can be toxic if taken too far. Acknowledging that meta dps builds are superior in dps is not toxic, saying it is the only viable dps builds is toxic. It is by itself not very toxic to want to get what you asked for.However when someone joins via the LFG if it said "Dragonhunter power DPS" and you play something else, that does have enough dps to cover the dps role albeit not necessarily as much as the Dragonhunter it is not toxic to ask the lfg group if you can join explaining that you do the role needed and can play the build you have. If he then kicks you for not being "Dragonhunter" then that is toxic, and saying it is because he is not META is more toxic, abiding by the "only meta works" philosophy is even more toxic. However being angry at him for not accepting the build you had is also a little toxic.

YES there are more builds than meta builds that are viable for raids, it is the overall composition that must meet a certain criteria. However meta setups are meta for a reason they are, if everyone plays them perfectly, the BEST composition of builds that can take that encounter that they know of(They as in the people managing the meta sites for the respective mode). If everyone is not playing them good enough then there might be a different composition that works better for your group.For example for my usual raiding group we use 3 healers on Mattias to have enough heals and CC so the DPS can be pure DPS. We could modify our build but we use those exact build on other encounters and it is easier for us to swap one dps for a healer, than for every dps to swap to a more survivable and cc oriented version.

When it comes to DPS count, it is the average dps for all participants that needs to be high enough, if someone is playing a role that does less dps then someone else must do more dps to compensate to have enough to complete the encounter. That dps is not very high, but due to certain mechanics such as Dhuums last 10% that must be a certain average. Also, the benched dps on a golem is not the same as a actual DPS during the fight.For example i play dragonhunter in some raids, when i was at my best i managed to get just above 28K on the kitty golem with key boons and buffs on. However during actual raid due to mechanics, boss being away and not all boons and effects being permanent i was only at approximately 12K dps average for the entire fights.One of the reasons some play roles that have lower DPS is to play support roles to give boons. and maintaining good enough up-time of key boons alone is not easy and not viable for many classes. So someone (usually 2 to 3) goes boon support, often one or two of these also heals, meaning they do very little damage. That needs to be compensated for by the other participants. Now, while there is not a high amount of DPS each other has to increase in order to compensate for that loss, the fights are not static, they have certain mechanics that artificially increase that requirement.

Such as Dhuum which at 10% HP (3 200 000) resets the timer to 1 minute 45 second, becomes immune and engages all the players that are still alive (preferably all) in a mini-game where they are sent out of their bodies and need to gather 5 orbs to return to their bodies. They have a time-limit of 30 seconds to do that or that player dies. when they have returned to their bodies dhuum is still invulnerable the players need to coordinate to go out into a high damage zone to interact with some seals to make in vulnerable for 20 seconds before he goes invulnerable again and the seals need to be interacted with again. META dps builds here have a higher requirement for survival than a non-meta build that has a little bit of survivability built in. +1 point for off-meta dps builds.

Math time: The timer starts and Dhuum becomes invulnerable approximately 5 seconds later the animation for turning the player into spirits are done and 15 seconds in total for all players to get the orbs is normal. So 20 seconds done already. There are now only 1:25 remaining. Then when enough players are normal they need to coordinate to activate the 7 seals. 3 seconds of running each way with swiftness (cannot count blink/shadow step here since that would require all 7 to play that and then it is back to the meta problem) + 5 seconds activation time for the seal. So assuming all 7 mange to start running out immediately and at the same time. 3 second sprint 5 second activation. another 8 seconds off. 1:17 remaining, dhuum is now vulnerable and 7 of the players are not at him yet. so another 3 seconds until all players are there. for the sake of math lets say all have 5k dps flat out all the time no matter what. With 5k dps each that amounts to 15K dps for the first 3 seconds then 50K dps for group for 17 seconds = 895K damage in those 20 seconds. 57 seconds remaining, then there is another lap of seals 8 second then damage phase again. 49 seconds remaining when dps starts so first 15K DPS for 3 seconds then 50K DPS for 17 seconds again is a new 895K damage taken. he now has 1 410 000 hp remaining with 29 seconds on the timer. 8 second sprint 20 second dps = 1 second left and 515 K HP. By these numbers there doesn't have to be A LOT of higher DPS per player to mange to get the kill. Assuming all players mange the timing correctly.

Given the time to run back after the seal and the timer there are 3 dps round of 20 second for 3 players and 3 dps round of 17 seconds for 7 players giving an effective 537 dps seconds. with that number there needs to be a average dps of 5960 per player. Not very much. However consider then that some roles only does 1-3K dps, the other need to account for that loss. So if you want to join a group that has 2 roles that does ~2k dps and 2 roles that does ~4k DPS, assuming these 4 are among the ones running to the seal the dps that the DPS's need to have on average then to compensate for the loss off the supports are 7 772 (close to 7.8K dps).So then to be a help to that group you have to have at least that amount of DPS otherwise you are not pulling your weight and some other DPS have to compensate for that loss. AKA you are being carried. These numbers are not high when checked on a kitty golem. But they can be daunting to get in a real fight with many builds especially considering the time it to build up boons and such again.

Dhuum was just one example. But throughout the raids (not counting CM) a group average of 8K DPS can kill any boss if no player dies. (Raid dps not kitty dps) if someone dies than that needs to be compensated for. However due to the nature of pugs.A. Many people do not know what is actually required in order to make a kill and thinks that meta is the only viable option (high toixicity either by ignorance or misinformation).B. The reason for the meta builds/composition is for groups that know that they are all good enough to do it to be able to do it as fast as possible. Some find it enjoyable to push their own records there, but personally i mean that belongs in a static, not a pug.C. They want meta DPS's to be able to compensate for 1, 2 or ever 3 people that die at some point during the raid since they do not know the skilllevel of the persons joining the group.

So, if you do not have a meta build, but you know that you can full fill your role, (preferably some extra since some may die) you should be good to go. Either explain to the group the situation, or lie(not preferable, and difficult if they ask for a specific class/elite spec that you aren't playing). If they do not accept you even after you showed insight and humility enough to say you do not play meta but can hold your weight then they are toxic. Regardless of which approach you take if you do not pull your weight in the raid then you are being a toxic player, even if not flaming because you do not full fill the role you signed up to full fill. If you on top of that lied about what you were playing you are even more toxic.Some might employ dps meters during a fight and if it wipes ones and they see a dps not having enough dps and kick him they are toxic no matter what build that dps was playing, IF that dps was not pulling his own weight aka he had lower than the average dps needed from the dps roles to complete that raid he was also toxic. But if the dps was high enough to complete just not high enough for the commanders "i want only the best standards" then the commander is VERY toxic.I am not absolutely sure about this in GW2 but i do believe that using a dps meter to exclude players is against ToS. In most MMO's that is the case and i believe it is so in GW2 also.

It is a lot more ways to be toxic than not to be toxic when it comes to raids(and fractals).I have been kicked for not being meta, i have been kicked for not pulling my weight, i have been carried, i have been taught since they noticed me not pulling my weight, i have gotten tips for optimising my play when they noticed me not doing optimally. I have also kicked players for not pulling their weight, i have carried players, i have helped players. One thing i personally have not done is kick for not being meta. but i have kicked someone for joining as a different ROLE all together. (no they didn't just join on one then planned to swap character)I can say first hand it is A LOT easier to choose the toxic route especially on the first 2 days after reset in prime time as the slots gets filled FAST. But it is never right to be the toxic one. But if the build they ask for does something more than JUST pure DPS, there might be a reason why they want that build. So if that is the case and the joiner cannot full fill that side role, then yes it is right of him not to be able to join if none of the others can compensate, but he should then be told why not just get a "Go meta kick". Example is druid pusher on Keep Construct. its role is to heal, boon a little and manage a very specific mechanic. if none of the other can do that mechanic then it is right for them to not accept the joiner if that also cannot do that mechanic. But be nice about it also to not be toxic.

So it boils down to What, How, Why.They don't accept you into the raid group.How do they do that. Screaming, yelling, shaming. Just kicking silently. Explaining that there is a reason.Why do they no accept you. For not being meta, not doing the job you said you'd do, not being able to do a specific mechanic they need of the last one in the group.How they do it is more impacting than why to the level of toxicity but both do play a role, it is very toxic to explain that they cannot join because they need to be meta because nothing below 30K dps is not good enough, even though you did the nice thing of explaining it.And the opposite way, if they have a good reason for not accepting you. I.E. the class/build you play cannot do a mechanic that the one they are looking for is required to do and they explain that then you get angry at them then you are being toxic for not accepting that you would not be able to play in that group.

Issue 6: Easy Mode.Personally i would love to see easy-mode raid, albeit at a lowered reward state. for example only 1 LI for the entire wing instead of for each encounter in the wing. No need to change any other reward as magnetite shards and Gaeting Crystal are still capped per week, and ordinary loot is just a neat thing to get for a kill.My reasoning for the lowered LI is that getting double the LI by simply doing easy and normal mode would make them too farm-able. They are meant to be something to work for. And having normal mode and easy mode share the loot meaning same amount of LI but you can choose easy or normal, would mean most would just do easy for faster clears and normal would mostly die out. It would mainly be used for the occasional "lets challenge our selves" groups.I personally have no trouble with raid difficulty as it is, but it would be nice to be able to get a bunch of less experienced / less proficient players to enjoy the story that is in the raids without them just sitting there feeling 9 players carry them through the encounter just for them to get the story. Also easy mode would for some/many be a entryway into raids to then later do normal-mode in a way that for the moment strikes fail to do, although the whole premise of strike was to do just that.

There would still be a lot of LFG's for groups that want highly optimised builds to clear it as fast as possible, and there would be many players to fill those slots, but for those that do not have that there would also be a lot of LFG's that only require you to do enough so that those that do not play optimised builds would still be able to find groups pretty fast.

[Bug Reports: LWS4 Episode 5: All or Nothing]

The dialogue at the start of the episode has a echo to it making it sound like i am standing far away inside a cave listening to other people talk. It is also very low in volume.I have tried restarting the game but that did not help.

[[Suggestions]QoL (Quality of Life) Ideas [Merged]]

@"DoggySpew.4529" said:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/64950/guild-wars-2-ui-disappearing-option#latestI have an idea posted for disappearing and re-appearing UI. The idea is that if you are out of combat, the UI disappears automatically. With an optional "compass" remaining for navigation as an option.

If this is happening, please have it as an option. I want my ui up all the time.

[[Suggestions]QoL (Quality of Life) Ideas [Merged]]

I wish we could individually combine inventory bags so that i could have my inventory look like this.

[Official Mount Adoption Feedback Thread [merged]]

Have arenanet not paid attention to the state of the masters of RNG RMT?Approximetly 80% of all korean mmo's that die out die out due to the RNG factor on items purchased for real money, since most players don't want (or can't afford) to gamble real money.I wanted 1 skin, but i am not paying up to 12000 gems for it.or 9600 gems straight away to ensure i get it.

[Official Mount Adoption Feedback Thread [merged]]

Have arenanet not paid attention to the state of the masters of RNG RMT?Approximetly 80% of all korean mmo's that die out die out due to the RNG factor on items purchased for real money, since most players don't want (or can't afford) to gamble real money.I wanted 1 skin, but i am not paying up to 9600 gems for it.