Rogue.8235

This kind of mindset has been raised in other threads, in different ways. One key thing to recognize is that progression in GW2 is the skill of the actual player, not stats. Gear stats are more of a tool to help you reach a minimum, baseline level of effectiveness. Being able to push damage/support/game mechanics is your actual use and moment-to-moment decisiveness of active skills. So essentially, the vertical progression is you, the human's, actual skill level. I understand this is probably not desirable to you in particular, so another way to get the "classical" feel of vertical progression is having a full legendary armory. Each piece of legendary has an actual impact on your ability to swap play-styles on the fly with build templates (the discussion of how you feel about the implementation of templates is a separate one, we'll skip over that for now). As for getting "meaningful" loot drops, this isn't possible in the long-run. In the beginning, green gear actually did mean a lot, and was noticeably better. Rare yellow gear used to be a long-term goal. However, as more people play, and more things drop, these same items diminished in value. Creating new shiny drops will face the same end-state; they will eventually diminish in value and shininess until most of the player-base doesn't care for them anymore. While I understand that some players prefer the rush of occasionally getting that awesome rare drop, I prefer the current system. Everything has value, and that value is built upon a system of raw materials. High volume, high velocity commodities make for a strong economy (usually) and I prefer the stability and open-ended status quo, where things can be distilled into common currency/commodities which are used for what you actually want. The intermediary markets allow players of different parts of the game each get what they exactly want without needing to go to the other side. Again, we're just expressing personal preferences, and for whatever reasons ArenaNet has mentioned in the past (I don't have links on hand), they have decided to go with their current system. Anyways, tl;dr: Legendary gear may be the gear-based "vertical" grind you may be looking for. Vertical is in quotes because it's not truly vertical, but the closest the game has to offer. All meaningful loot becomes meaningless over time. MMO's will perpetually arrive at the current state you stated your dislike for. That's just the nature of virtual economies (without getting into the economic principles at play). If I misunderstood anything, please correct me.

Interesting that the responses assume the OP was losing, when his team is the winning team (the point being that even when winning, there's afkers).

With this suggestion, I see a workaround to my requirement of having some sort of in-game voice communication. I can post a link to whatever voice comm I'm on, that way I can actually communicate with players in the game. Right now, communication is impossible while actively playing. Communication when not doing anything and the character is in a safe space is only possible with the use of print screen, OCR conversion, text to speech, and trying to decipher the horrible pronunciation of short hand common in internet typing. This process is a massive drain on my system memory, and doing this for long is infeasible. It also takes forever to respond to a single statement. I support anything that helps me communicate with players in the game.

I have never drastically changed a single build I play to the extent you describe. The only reason to do this is the pursuit of mathematical optimization. In that case, you're less actually playing the profession and more executing the optimized mathematical solution of, for example, most damage per second. Some enjoy this type of gameplay, and I don't wish to detract from that. However, recognize that the pursuit of optimization is less about having a favorite play style and more about mathematical optimization. If you don't find mathematical optimization fun, then realize that there has yet to be a balance change that requires a complete change of build, down to the gear. For context, I play every profession. My most played are thief, warrior, and mesmer in PvP, and I have never used a meta build. All of my builds are of my own making based on how I play and my decision-making tendencies during a match. My least played profession in PvP is revenant. For PvE and WvW, all professions are equally played. Again, I have never adjusted builds based on balance changes because they're effective. Any drastic change I make is because what I originally built was just that bad to begin with.

Technical issues means that software, and software developers are not perfect. Software developers are not perfect because they are human (hopefully). Software isn't perfect because it is built by humans, and bound by the inherent flaw of humans in that humans are not perfect. Nothing is perfect, so demanding perfection is being seen as unreasonable in this thread. In your second paragraph, you only address the interface, not the back-end. The functions and systems in software are not completely established by adding a button function to the graphic user interface (GUI). In fact, most of the functions and systems that make up software are never seen by the end user. This back-end is what takes time and resources to fix/adjust/etc. Overall, no one is perfect, and nothing built by humans can be perfect. Perfection is something to strive for, but reasonable minds understand this goal will never be attained. Mistakes will be made in GW2, and the software developers do their best to fix the software while keeping up with all other duties. To ask for a flawless information system, such as software, is not reasonable. To ask for anything made by humans to be flawless is also not reasonable. Until we're overthrown and hunted to extinction for sport by the robot overlords. Then you can ask for perfection. This shouldn't happen for another.... *checks notes*.... 32.583 years (391 months or approximately 11,898 days).

I would find running a subsidiary (effectively) company too frustrating. You don't have the ultimate say on strategic management, as the parent company can slap things down if they think you're getting too uppity with their bottom line. Even more so for a firm built around a creative IP. As a result, I would end up balancing the creative process of my developers, building new content for the IP we wish to grow, with the demands of the parent company's financial targets. It is never worth getting into a legal dispute with a company with a much bigger retainer than you. As such, I'd focus development on new content that is most played by the player base. This allows for creative expansion of an IP while ensuring that all financial targets are met. This is also such a ridiculously oversimplified explanation of what it would take to be the CEO of a development firm. In secret, I would slowly make a long-term plan (maybe 6-10 years) to break from the parent company for a business environment that allows for much bigger expansion into product lines to build the IP. Details for this is non-existent because I have not done any market/industry/economic/legal research and analysis into ArenaNet's specific business environment. Even so, this will most likely not be done, as it is extremely risky and the benefits will most likely not stack up. For the long-term strategic goals of a going concern, I'd be looking at either expanding the Guild Wars franchise in some manner, or look into development of a new IP. A going concern means a company that will last indefinitely, and the strategic plans to keep the business operational and profitable in perpetuity. Disclaimer: My post is wildly unreasonable.

There is a non-math way of doing builds for the beginner, which I often used. I'm going to use your bleeding trait example just to help keep it simple. Instead of calculating how much more damage a trait does, just find all the traits that mention bleeding. Does your build do a lot of bleeding on its own? This is not a mathematical question, but a guesstimation. For example: "Hmm, I have auto attacks that bleed and a few other skills that bleed. That's good enough." Pick all the bleeding traits. The same is true for every other condition and boon. Just pick the things that match. Do this until you don't have any further traits and skills to pick, i.e., you have a full build. Now play the game. The next evaluation question is: Are you having a good time or a bad time? If good time, you have the first draft of a build you can master and tweak. If you're having a bad time, scrap the build and try some other matching stuff. This is how I figured out Guild Wars 2 on day one to.... large number. It took a while to get to where I'm at, but first hand experience with trait/skill/weapon/stat combos is how you master the professions. During you're playtime, you'll uncover synergistic combinations the way you understand them, without having to figure out what a particular guide is trying to tell you. First hand knowledge and experience is always better than reading a guide that may not be explaining it in a way you understand things. This baseline level of knowledge will then enable you to better understand why certain builds are considered meta, and what tweaks can be made for your specific circumstances and play style. It is a lot of trial and error, but I cannot emphasize enough how much more you'll learn playing the game.

Thanks! Words are easy to use and understand, because they're words! Not really, because of words explaining the reasons for why that is so. In other words, these words explain arguments and stuff about realistic expectations and other words for stuff. To summarize, words.

I, too, wish to bring a reward table inconsistency to ArenaNet's attention. So, I have never gotten a precursor drop during the entire time I've played. Now, for reasons and words describing said reasons, with mentions of loyal customer and other such stuff, this should be fixed. This is more reasons and words with stuff about customer satisfaction and other things about making the game fun and player award experience and the like. I have presented sound, rational arguments that should persuade ArenaNet, and anyone reading this post, that I deserve precursors. Yes, that's plural. Here's more reasons with words and phrases that explain stuff. As you can see, the precursors are well deserved. And if that doesn't convince you, here's a multitude of even more words that outline the reasons for why this ought to be fixed in my favor. As you can see, the reasons and arguments are persuasive because they consist of words. Words are always rational and well-thought, and deserving of serious deliberation. By typing even more words, I'm only bolstering my case which includes words of arguments and stuff. Here's even more words. Words words words. So, I should get precursors. Thanks!

The key to playing all professions is to have a great understanding of the game's combat mechanics. Don't chase meta-builds, you can derive your own. I play every professions, with multiple builds on every professions. Instead of sticking to any profession, I simply play whetever professions I feel like on the day. I also play PvP, PvE, and some WvW. I have builds for every profession in every game mode (except raids). I change it up based on what kind of style I feel like playing. Chasing meta builds is only recommended if you don't have masterful knowledge of a particular profession. Meta builds are shared for those who don't understand their mechanics well enough to create their own, effective build. Rather than chasing changing metas, play all your characters to the extreme limit. You will fail a lot, but you'll learn so much about the classes. You'll also understand the limitations of every profession, helping you fight every profession more effectively. Experience over time supercedes meta builds every time. So, rather than worrying about sticking to one profession, just play the game with any random profession you feel like. Pushing the limits every time will develop that base of knowledge and player skill that will replace any need to rely on meta builds. Meta builds are assistive devices to help players, and should not be the end step of being a better player. Since you play every profession, you can develop to be one of the more adaptable players in the game. Balance patches never affect me, and with time, they won't affect you, either.

I would say warrior. Warrior is an extremely simple profession, compared to the others, which scales with actual player skill. I'd compare warrior to fighting games which have a character with a small move-list but is top-tier based on how well the player can use that small move list. Essentially, it's not complex game mechanics, but how you use the warrior that makes it effective. The warrior has a wide variety of methods to kill everything. Note, this is under the context of open-world and story PvEE. You can dabble with amny weapon combinations to find a set you enjoy. Just remember, choose condition damage or strike damage (power) as you level. With an incomplete build, you won't be able to make a hybrid build with great success. Anyways, warrior has many ways to tackle content, it all depends on how you use the tools you choose to bring. I have several warriors, each with multiple, different builds, taht I use all over the game, to include PvE, PvP, and WvW (though less often). Another thing, survivability in the game is about active damage mitigation. Avoid damage by dodging, blocking, blinding, stunning, repositioning, evading, and invulning. In particular, warrior has a lot of CC skills for outright stunning an enemy (preventing them from attacking) or hindering enemy movement (cripple and immobilize) to allow easy repositioning, some mobility skills, skills that block attacks, skills that make you invulnerable to attacks, at least one skill that blinds (longbow), and the standard two dodges available to every profession. With your weapon swaps, you can go from large, heavy attacks to quick, mobile attacks. There are a lot of ways to combo skills, including cross-weapon combos. Warrior is honestly good in all content, though I never played raids so can't speek for raiding. The meta is different between PvE, PvP, and WvW, but warrior is still good to go in all 3. Again, the effectiveness of warrior scales with player skill, so success is dependent on outplaying your enemies. I, personally, find thief to be the most engaging profession in terms of player skill, but am suggesting warrior as it is generally easier to play for new players. Thief requires above average skill in utilizing active defenses to survive, whereas the stats of warrior makes gameplay more forgiving.

This is what I always assumed it to be. Thanks for confirming, and thanks to OP for getting this discussion started.

I merely assess every confused reaction as a person, of humble scholastic origins, expressing the desire to be privately messaged a more explanatory presentation of the information in the reactee post. Thereby, and incorporating by reference all discussions heretofor of all such posts produced within the thread, resultant information derived thereof, and all variations of explanations produced thus far, I submit additional exposition in the form of a private message, wherein all such inferred confusion is addressed. See Trahearne V. Arcane Council, 431 Pact.App. 1182, 1190-5 (1325) (stating, "[y] es, you have to explain everything to the plant"). Likewise, sad reactions are construed as empathy. I send a thank you message for empathizing with me. This post is as poignant as the rest of the thread. You cannot, 100%, determine the intent of an anonymous action which has no context. You can barely prove intent when presented with a well-reasoned explanation and clear identification. Thus, no one here can determine what the intent of the reaction emojis represent. You don;'t know who reacted, or any details of why they reacted. Personally, I use the confused emote as a disagree button, an "I'm genuinely confused about how you arrived at your conclusion" button, and an "everything in that post is just wrong" button. You have no idea what posts I've reacted to, or what my thought process was for any given reaction to any given post. To think anyone can deduce the intent of any reaction of any post is just fallacious.

So, the solution is to store each rabbit foot in the same-colored bag. This is the only correct way to keep rabbit feet. Any other way ends up in a hidden flag that reduces your chances of getting precursor drops. The foregoing information is completely derived from thin air and statistical analysis based on data made-up on the spot. This information should be considered with a massive amount of skepticism, if not outright disbelief. Hope this helps.

I actually use the Oiled bags (junk items), craftsman bags(crafting materials), and equipment bags (equipment items). I don't need invisbile bags because of shared inventory slots. Everything that needs to be clicked on accumulates at the top of the inventory. All of the specialty bags are at the bottom slots. When I righ click and "open all" everything is auto organized. My salvage kits are in shared inventory slots, so all I need to do is right click to salvage everything. Things that are not automatically salvaged, stored in bank, or sold to merchants accumulate at the top of the inventory for easy inspection of "what the skritt did I just get" (also known as checking the wiki). Basically, everything that is routinely removed from my inventory, either by storing in crafting bank tab, selling junk, or salvaging into something stored or sold, are put into the bottom of the inventory, out of the way. I've been considering getting an extra bag slot per character, and I didn't know the Olmakhan Bandolier auto-sorts items. Oh, and I don't need invisible bags because all my routine items are stoed in shared inventory slots. Clearing inventory for me is merely right clicking containers and opening all. Right clicking my copper-fed to salvage all blues and whites, right clicking runecrafter to salvage all greens, and right clicking silver-fed to salvage all yellows. Click to store all crafting materials. At merchant, click to sell all junk. Inventory is now cleared of everything except things that may be profitable to sell on TP. Takes mere seconds.

It would be nice to have appearance options set per equipment template. To take your suggest8ion a step further, having outfit/glider/mounts per build would be nice. Pretty sure it's not close to feasible, but still something I would like.

Just wanted to chime in and say a well-built tutorial will kind of standardize PvP, which is good. One thing that confuses new players is the moment-to-moment decision making. This is exacerbated by not knowing what they're supposed to be doing and what their teammates are supposed to be doing, i.e., they don't know how to help their team. A "soft" standard would alleviate that problem (my opinion). If new players have a better idea of what their role is, and how that role works with their teammates, whose roles they are also familiar with, the biggest learning curve is softened. This would also (probably) alleviate the massive variance in effective PuG compositions, e.g., less getting stomped simply because your team composition is horrid. The major issue is what, specifically, should be taught to new players, let alone actually spending the time and effort to build and implement such a tutorial system. Honestly, I think it's worth it to do so. The initial learning curve of GW2 PvP is too steep, and I'm not referring to general mechanics. It's the decision making and knowing what to do in a conquest map that players seem to struggle with the most. Having a standard set of basic knowledge and skills would really help with the PvP population.

I always wondered whatever happened to you, Ms. Poppins.

Thank you so much!! Oh, and I'm really sorry to say, but my wallet isn't going to be happy with you over the next month. 😜

To add further to software engineers, my brother is a software engineer. Apparently, there is only one action that ever needs to be taken to fix stuff: Turn it off, turn it back on. If it didn't work, try turning it off, then turn it back on again. Still not working? Okay, try .... you get the idea. So I guess this is my question for the ArenaNet Developers: Did you guys try turning it off then turning it back on?

Mount skins with new sound effects? I like. Is there a list of mount skins that have unique sound effects? As a blind player, this interests me.

That's what normal people say. Engineers say: "If it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features." paraphrasing Scott Adams

Logged in the game to figure out what all the fuss is about. I literally see no change with the... oh, wait... yeah, never mind. I'll take everyone's word for it. 😎

I'm not aware of a skritt starter zone. You can start from grove, citadel, city, lab, or homestead. oh, not that kind of scratch. never mind.

Concerning weapon stowing, it's useful in PvP scenarios. Skills with a cast time that your opponents knows they need to dodge can be feinted. Start skill animation, cancel when they dodge, you now only need to wait a few seconds for the recharge rather than the full cooldown timer. In PvE, it can be your "woops, never mind" button. One such scenario is the one you presented with projectile reflection. It's also useful if your arms get tired. If you're lugging around a huge weapon, sometimes you just need to put it away and give your arms a break.