Mad Queen Malafide.7512

The Queen had the fireworks ordered especially for your birthday my dear... and they are now safely stored at a local orphanage waiting for the event.

For the same experience, you can add GW2 as a non-steam game to your Steam library, as I have. But will there be Steam achievements and badges for GW2?

I remember you attending Aria darling! It is truly wonderful to see people like you still attending our lovely event, who have been with it since the start. Thank you kindly darling! The Queen is looking forward to seeing you at the festivities.

The King and Queen's Horrorween Official Art Contest To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the oldest community event in the history of Guild Wars, we are holding a spooktacular Halloween art contest. To enter, post a Halloween art piece that you created in this thread, and include at least one of the event's hosts in your art piece. Below you will find an image of Daniel Frozenwind and Mad Queen Malafide for reference. We accept multiple entries from the same player, but each player is only eligible for one prize. (The prizes have been updated. The value of the prizes has been increased, and the gold rewards have been adjusted accordingly. The overal worth of each prize is higher than what we initially offered. Further more, we're giving away smaller prizes to the runner ups as well.) THE WINNERS 1st Place - Baquetta.8061 - 200 gold and a highly coveted Llama mini2nd Place - Cherrycake.9634 - 100 gold and The Crossing Staff3rd place - Shilo.4931 - 25 gold and The Mad Moon Shield Runners Up 4th place - Malicei.9140 - Chaos Gun, precursor to Quip5th place - Hellschream.4812 - Rage, precursor to Frenzy6th place - Texpoca.7203 - Royal Flame Weapon Coffer7th Place - Fenella.2634 - Royal Flame Weapon Coffer

I think you may have skipped over what I was saying. The stuff that comes after that sentence. And yet the game's combat needed an overhaul. Whether the end result is the best they could have come up with is open to discussion. But I think anything is better than what GW2 used to be. And in that respect, I'm fine with the breakbar and other changes that were made. Changes HAD to be made, because GW2's combat was boring.

First of all, that last line was not in my original quote, so I presume it was meant to be the first line of your argument (corrected above). You may have made a minor mistake when assembling your post, so that one of your sentences got added to the end of your quote of my post. Regardless... To address your argument darling, I think it is fair to say that most players don't choose a role when they play the game. They put together some skills that they like, and then play through most of the game with that build. Since the core game barely challenges anyone, it is quite possible for that build to be a really REALLY bad build. Even if it is a build they "know how to play" and "love", it might simply be terrible. So when such a player then tries HoT, they run into a brick wall. Before the release of HoT, these forums were full of people asking for better and more challenging combat. They weren't wrong, the core combat is pretty shallow and boring to be honest, mostly due to lack of interesting mechanics. A lot of those concerns were addressed in HoT and further refined in PoF and Living Story. Breakbars became a thing, bosses received phases, enemies received attacks and abilities that heavily punish players when they hit. Basically a huge overhaul of GW2's combat system. I think this change was badly needed to keep players interested, but it does mark a sudden change in difficulty. Especially players who didn't experience Living Story season 1 and 2 will be ill prepared for HoT throws at them. Plus HoT also seems more designed with groups of players in mind, rather than a solo experience. The tutorials of the game weren't updated to reflect these changes either, making HoT into this brick wall of difficulty for lots of players. It's understandable.

To some perhaps. But there were plenty of players who just wanted to skip to the end, and/or were struggling with some of the missions. With Fractals, some players are simply completionists. But they may not be skilled enough, or have some physical disability that prevents them from completing Fractals. I don't think those people should be denied from completing the content. And of course some players simply can't be bothered to do it themselves. Wouldn't we much rather see these people join a paid ferry, then to join other groups? If some players would rather have someone else do all the hard work for them, why should we care? It does not diminish my enjoyment of the game.

Buying and selling of runs has existed since GW1's droknar runs. As long as there are players struggling with some of the content, there are people willing to capitalize on it. Perhaps a player just wants the completion, and isn't interested in actually doing the content? Perhaps a player is physically unable to complete the content, but still wants to see it completed? I can think of plenty of legitimate reasons why a player might want to bypass the struggle of doing the content themselves. If other players are willing to do that for them, in return for a compensation, then that is alright with me. I'm glad such options exist for those players. But be aware that when you hand players gold for services not yet provided, you have no guarantee they won't just run off with your gold. Don't expect Anet to intervene on behalf of you, your poor investments and poor judgement.

I was playing through The Bitter Cold (Living Story season 3). After brewing the thax elixer, I went up to the cave to face the Abomination, but didn't complete the entire mission (I don't remember if I actually beat the Abomination). Just around that time the new living story for season 4 was released, so I abandoned this quest line to check out the new content. This week I tried to resume my progress on The Bitter Cold. I made my way up to the cave with a new thax elixer, only to find that there was no abomination. It would not progress. I also cannot go to Sorrow's Eclipse and speak with Deep Water. Currently the quest says I must track the abomination, but he isn't there. It refuses to progress. Redoing the entire chapter might allow me to continue, but I figured I'd mention it first, so it can be fixed.

It annoys me how one minion can keep you in combat, despite you having left combat ages ago, with no way to call the minions back. It affects your movement speed and ability to use objects that require being out of combat. I've been a strong opponent of the in-combat slowdown mechanic for as long as the game exists, but at least gives minion masters a way to leave combat quickly. It also annoys me how the Flesh Golem often aggroes on things that are not being attacked by their owner, nor are anywhere near the owner. At a certain distance, maybe the Flesh Golem should simply disengage and return to its master.

The only conclusion we can reasonably make, is that Anet perceived that Heart of Thorns content was a bit too challenging (which it was), so they made it easier. But it isn't proof of what you want it to be. And yet, Heart of Thorns is still plenty challenging, even with the reduction in difficulty. The best advise I can give to players struggling with it, is to first try their hand at Fractals and Path of Fire. And to not be too attached to the build that helped them get through the core game. Try out some new builds, and look at the builds other people have come up with. You don't have to follow the meta, but it doesn't hurt to learn from popular builds to improve your own. Also, the new specializations make your class A LOT more powerful.

So, as much as I enjoy this Fractal, I have some criticism that echoes some of what others have said before: -It is a pity the Fractal is so linear and the paths are so small. I wish there was more than one way up the cliff.-The scripted jump up the cliff, occasionally throws the player into the cliff instead.-I don't like the collision on some of the stairs. You should be able to run up the stairs and not collide with it.-The rock-boss is the most boring and absurd opponent in this game so far. It is also really lame.-Occasionally the explosion hits through the walls that you hide behind, as Trevor also mentioned. This happens with the tutorial boss and the final boss.-One of the messages that you need to collect for the achievement, involves some very janky platforming that results in a lot of button mashing. I hate that.-The river rapids should have a clear audio cue when they speed up. Most players don't get what is going on there.-The lightning phase at the final boss often bugs out if you fail the boss. This results in the phase never ending and requires reentering the instance. Some advise for players struggling with the final boss: Phase 1 (air):Make sure everyone brings some CC skills. Save the CC for when the boss goes to the middle, and CC her as soon as her deviantbar activates. This leaves her stunned for a while, and cancels her most dangerous attack. Save your dodges for attacks that matter, such as the lightning blasts that appear underneath your character, or the circles that appear as she returns to the middle. When circles appear underneath your character, spread out and make sure the circle doesn't overlap with that of other players. Dodge 1 second after it has filled up. For the lightning phase, it may help to agree with each other in which direction everyone goes, and to work clockwise from circle to circle. That way multiple players won't be running to the same cloud. Place markers on the minimap if needed.Beware of the moment right before the lightning phase. She will dive back to the middle and create a deadly vortex that kills players quite often. The projectiles she fires throughout the fight, can be dodged by running (no dodge roll required) and do very little damage, so you could face-tank them. Skills that help you chase after the boss are helpful, as she moves around a lot. Just don't stand in her path when she dives to a new location. Phase 2 (fire):Very similar to phase 1. Again, focus on CC'ing her when she's in the middle. No one should get hit by the explosion attack or the meteors, since they are so clearly telegraphed. Just jump over those shockwaves and seek cover behind a wall in time. Also be weary that some walls might break during this phase; don't stay behind a destroyed meteor! Use two dodge rolls to quickly get to a new wall if this happens. You should be saving your dodges for when you really really need them. Phase 3 (water):Stick together and be careful of the vortexes that she fires, which really hurt. Stay as much to the outside of the arena and avoid the middle. Only return to the middle when the vortex dissipates, but bail out before she creates a new one. There is no reason why any player should be dying due to the giant vortex in the center. Help downed players up quickly, so they don't get sucked into it. Share the burden of Tidal Bargain when prompted, which is why you stick together, and move away as a group from those blue orbs. This is by far the easiest phase of the three, since there's not a whole lot of attacks you need to avoid.

You have hit the nail on the head. Indeed the core game does a very poor job preparing players for the harder content in HoT. It also doesn't teach players how to make builds; they are left to figure that out for themselves, and many players never figure it out at all. Path of Fire and Fractals are much better tutorials for some of the more complex boss mechanics and the breakbar, but they may might not be the first content that players turn to after finishing the core campaign. And how is a player supposed to know which insignia's to use and which runes? The default assumption would be that they all serve a purpose, but they don't. Some are just terrible, and that greatly affects how easy or hard the game is for you. When I just started playing the game, I invested a lot in toughness, thinking that would make me more resilient. But I eventually learned through frustration and shame about the diminishing returns of toughness. The game doesn't actually teach you that. So if you go straight into Heart of Thorns right after beating the core game, with the same build, you are probably going to have a bad time. Foes hit hard in HoT, and they spam conditions like crazy. They have attacks and abilities that are not found anywhere in the core game, and they have attacks that you actually need to dodge. Understanding the breakbar also becomes a lot more important.

HOT is indeed a lot harder than any of the GW2 content, but I wouldn't want it changed. Yes, hero points often can't be solood. But it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to ask in map chat for players to help out. Players in GW2 are very helpful and there are often large groups of players flocking through HoT's maps. No, it isn't Dark Souls hard. Dark Souls is easier than most of HoT's content and more forgiving. Bosses in DS all have clear tells and windups to attacks, and almost any build can take down almost any boss. Plus the game allows you to outlevel your opponents, eventually making any fight a breeze. You've simply run into the first true obstacle in GW2: content that is a bit of a challenge. Now you may find that the builds you've been using all this time aren't good enough. And since GW2's tells and windups aren't as good as in Dark Souls, and the effect spam creates a lot of visual noise, it can be hard to see attacks coming. It all comes down to memorization, and using a build that allows you to endure a couple of hits. Yes, the map design is frustrating to navigate. It is what it is. Vertical maps are a pain. Yes, mobs are much tougher and more deadly than anywhere else in the game. But I think it is important to note why they are so much tougher. It's because most builds are really really bad. Players either go full glas cannon, with no defensive traits or skills what so ever, or they just do so little damage, that combat takes forever. I needed to revise my own build to deal with HoT, but I don't think that's a bad thing. HoT mobs also spam a lot of conditions, so condition removal is a lot more important here than anywhere else in the game.

True, but my second attempt was on CM, and again, my group did not run into a whole lot of problems taking her breakbar down. But we focused mostly on her when she was in the middle, saving our precious CC for the right moment to stun her. I would not recommend CC'ing her when she is on the outside of the arena, if you are having difficulty with the breakbar. Just save your CC for when she is in the middle.

My first experience with this boss was at T4. I just brought Flesh Golem on my reaper, along with reaper skill 4. While that wasn't enough to drop her entire bar, it takes off a fair chunk, plus Reaper Shroud takes off even more. If the rest of your party members all have 1 or 2 CC skills, it shouldn't really be a problem. We didn't use any consumables, and few of us had fought this boss before. I think everyone just needs to bring some CC, but not a whole lot.

My first experience with this fractal was at T4, and it was a pretty smooth ride. The map itself and the mini bosses are pretty simple. I didn't get the jumping mechanic at first, and a few times the auto-jump spots bugged out and yeeted me against the cliff multiple times. We tried going for an achievement at the final boss, but gave up after the boss bugged out, and the lightning didn't go away. We had to reload the instance to fix it. After we passed on getting the achievement, the last boss fight was pretty simple. The fractal does a good job of teaching all the important mechanics along the way, and I had a very good team. My second experience was with CM. Again, a pretty smooth ride. We had a pretty strong team, most of which had never done this with CM before. As the final boss fell, our party leader announced: "-And now, phase 2!" and we all gulped.... "Phase 2? There is a phase 2?!". The shock on our faces was pretty funny. It took a few tries to learn the last phase, but I enjoyed it.

But they didn't, and in fact it was a very speedy clear, and we got along pretty well.You can throw in a lot of hypotheticals that support your position, but that's not what happened. But they clearly didn't need one, because we did just fine without one. Also, they already had 2 guardians on their team. I did check their party composition before I joined. They already had 2 guardians in their party, we didn't lose anything.

Well I thought it was funny, and so did the group.Maybe you two shouldn't take things so seriously?

I didn't say that. They just asked for a guardian to complete their group, and I joined and told them I was "a Guardian disguised as a necromancer". We then proceeded to do the mission and complete it.

You're not wrong. As the fight progresses, there is definitely the potential for multiple attacks stacking at the same time. This is why killing Whisper as fast as possible is important. Another thing that I've noticed, is that the timing on the icycles is not consistent. They appear to drop slow at the start and faster the longer the fight lasts. This often throws people off.

I think there's a difference between people asking for kp, and people not dodging at all. Those two are not the same. They may be related (as in, people ask for kp to avoid terrible players), but does it have to be either one extreme or the other?

But you don't need any of that for something like Shiverpeak Pass. It is a strike mission that requires no raid experience, no knowledge of boss mechanics, and not even a good build. And yet some people ask for players who have done a lot of raids for a mission that is super simple. I've done Shiverpeak Pass hundreds of times, usually with pugs, and I have never seen it fail. Why ask for 250 LI for something so simple?

I love that idea.

I have never seen that red circle, and my settings are set to show all effects. But maybe that's the issue? All groups stack on top of that boss and spam attacks, obscuring any subtle effect that might be there. Maybe they should make it not so subtle so that you can actually see it on top of all the effect spam.