30th January Balance Preview

[ShadowKatt.6740]

9 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

It look like they are a bit heavy handed.

Actually this seems to be pretty normal. If they went any heavier they might just delete the mesmers from the game entirely.

[Mevelios.4809]

1 hour ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

Actually this seems to be pretty normal. If they went any heavier they might just delete the mesmers from the game entirely.

Who would make jumping puzzle portals then? 😞

Oh wait, necros, right. Nevermind! You can delete. 😄

[AllNightPlayer.1286]

[deleted]

Edited January 14 by AllNightPlayer.1286

[ShadowKatt.6740]

29 minutes ago, Mevelios.4809 said:

Who would make jumping puzzle portals then? 😞

Oh wait, necros, right. Nevermind! You can delete. 😄

Hey HEY!

Thieves have portals too.

Edit: Actually, it just occured to me after I hit post but that's actually a really good point. What DO we need mesmers for? Portals? Just established two other professions (so far) can do it. My long standing gripe Alacrity? Everyone has that now. Quickness? Again, everyone has that. Man, you could really delete the mesmer from the game and it would take at least a month before anyone would even notice. As much as I love being a mesmer, what do we bring to the table anymore? And don't get started on the stupid rifle coming next month, we'll be the 5th best healer in the game if we're lucky.

Edited January 14 by ShadowKatt.6740

[draxynnic.3719]

3 hours ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

Hey HEY!

Thieves have portals too.

Edit: Actually, it just occured to me after I hit post but that's actually a really good point. What DO we need mesmers for? Portals? Just established two other professions (so far) can do it. My long standing gripe Alacrity? Everyone has that now. Quickness? Again, everyone has that. Man, you could really delete the mesmer from the game and it would take at least a month before anyone would even notice. As much as I love being a mesmer, what do we bring to the table anymore? And don't get started on the stupid rifle coming next month, we'll be the 5th best healer in the game if we're lucky.

You could make a similar argument about just about any profession. Design principle is take the player, not the profession, after all - there are a few niche situations where you might really want a specific profession, but broadly speaking, they're aiming for a degree of interchangeability. Virtuoso is a good DPS, chrono is at least a competitive boon support, and while necro and thief portals exist, mesmer portals are still better.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

4 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

You could make a similar argument about just about any profession. Design principle is take the player, not the profession, after all - there are a few niche situations where you might really want a specific profession, but broadly speaking, they're aiming for a degree of interchangeability. Virtuoso is a good DPS, chrono is at least a competitive boon support, and while necro and thief portals exist, mesmer portals are still better.

yeah....the more I think about it, the worse it gets.

I was here for Guild Wars 1, which I've talked about at length in other places, and the thing that stood out there is that every profession was UNIQUE. They looked unique, they sounded unique, and they played unique. Sure, you could mix and match and try different things but you knew what you were getting it with, whether it was beneficial or detrimental, just based on what you saw. Monks were your healers and protectors, enchanting you and keeing you alive. Warriors held the line and cut down foes. Necros controlled the battlefield with their armies of minions or deadly wells, and so on. You wanted an elementalist in your party because no one did area damage as well as they did. You wanted a mesmer in your party because no one else could just shut down an enemy entirely. You wanted a ranger in your party because when everything went sideways you knew someone would survive.

Now though....man, people keep saying the game is dangerously close to be overly homogenized, I'm feeling like we are WAY past that point now. What the hell even is the point of professions aside from pick the color of your skill bar. Even if mesmer portals are better, and they are, I don't think I've ever seen a portal used to capacity so what does it matter?

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

9 hours ago, Mevelios.4809 said:

Who would make jumping puzzle portals then? 😞

Oh wait, necros, right. Nevermind! You can delete. 😄

Thief's portal only allows 5 entry as opposed to 20. And they only travel 1-way, which can be hindering in certain jumping puzzles namely porting Chalice of Tears. Scourge's portal is even worse, it's not a true portal since it still requires valid pathing to the exit. Which makes it practically useless.

We Mesmers still claim monopoly over porting jumping puzzles. That's how the Mesmer Collective has been getting its income.

Edited January 15 by ZephidelGRS.9520

[Micah.3789]

23 hours ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

people keep saying the game is dangerously close to be overly homogenized, I'm feeling like we are WAY past that point now. What the hell even is the point of professions aside from pick the color of your skill bar.

Allowing every class some degree of access to major roles and functions isn't homogenizing. There are absolutely distinct differences between the classes in terms of flavor, theme, and mechanical approach. Anet's approach to classes reminds me of table top RPG's. It allows the player to make a class choice based on flavor, aesthetic, and identity; but then separately choose a role for function with a unique spin based on that archetype. 

On 1/14/2024 at 4:36 PM, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

What DO we need mesmers for? Portals? Just established two other professions (so far) can do it. My long standing gripe Alacrity? Everyone has that now. Quickness? Again, everyone has that.

That's the point: we don't NEED any specific classes. We need damage, boons, and healing (plus occasional unique utility). I can choose to be a mesmer because I WANT to. Then, because of these diverse role options, I can be accepted into a party based on my contributions and merit rather than my class's niche job. To put it simply, this design philosophy gives me the freedom to play what I enjoy without completely compromising my cooperative function. I actually have an excellent example of this at play. 

I love fae archetypes in games, so the mesmer totally appeals to me with all the glamours and illusions. I put a lot into making a character, both build and style, that could express the duality of this archetype; wielding both supportive enchantments and baneful conditions. I ended up with a celestial hybrid alacheal mirage which I absolutely adore. It has all the flavor I wanted, but it even performs incredibly well specifically because of anet's design philosophy. The worst example of the old "take the CLASS, not the player" philosophy is in high tier fractals which often state a NEED for a healbrand. In your vision for the game, I'd have no choice but to play a class I don't enjoy or just be locked out of content I want to do. Luckily, anet has different ideas. I learned precisely why players preferred a HB and adjusted my build to accommodate without losing its integrity. Now I run CM fractals almost every day and constantly get people gushing over how smooth the runs were and how impressed they were that I was also doing damage. Now imagine someone complaining that it was HB's special unique class flavor to heal fractals and no one else should be allowed to. 

[katte nici.9483]

My WvW power roaming Chrono says thank you. I was just starting to have fun again. 

[draxynnic.3719]

19 hours ago, Micah.3789 said:

Allowing every class some degree of access to major roles and functions isn't homogenizing. There are absolutely distinct differences between the classes in terms of flavor, theme, and mechanical approach. Anet's approach to classes reminds me of table top RPG's. It allows the player to make a class choice based on flavor, aesthetic, and identity; but then separately choose a role for function with a unique spin based on that archetype. 

That's the point: we don't NEED any specific classes. We need damage, boons, and healing (plus occasional unique utility). I can choose to be a mesmer because I WANT to. Then, because of these diverse role options, I can be accepted into a party based on my contributions and merit rather than my class's niche job. To put it simply, this design philosophy gives me the freedom to play what I enjoy without completely compromising my cooperative function. I actually have an excellent example of this at play. 

I love fae archetypes in games, so the mesmer totally appeals to me with all the glamours and illusions. I put a lot into making a character, both build and style, that could express the duality of this archetype; wielding both supportive enchantments and baneful conditions. I ended up with a celestial hybrid alacheal mirage which I absolutely adore. It has all the flavor I wanted, but it even performs incredibly well specifically because of anet's design philosophy. The worst example of the old "take the CLASS, not the player" philosophy is in high tier fractals which often state a NEED for a healbrand. In your vision for the game, I'd have no choice but to play a class I don't enjoy or just be locked out of content I want to do. Luckily, anet has different ideas. I learned precisely why players preferred a HB and adjusted my build to accommodate without losing its integrity. Now I run CM fractals almost every day and constantly get people gushing over how smooth the runs were and how impressed they were that I was also doing damage. Now imagine someone complaining that it was HB's special unique class flavor to heal fractals and no one else should be allowed to. 

I'm reminded of the 4E system of power sources and roles. Broadly speaking, one was what you did, the other was how you did it. That 'how', however, could make a huge difference in actual gameplay and in what capabilities you had outside of the basic requirements of the role you're filling.

In that context, profession in GW2 is, broadly speaking, the power source. It determines what empowers you, and what sort of secondary abilities outside your core role you might have, but it does not define your core function.

It's worth remembering that this was the goal from the beginning. 'Bring the player, not the profession' isn't some new thing, it was the stated goal in GW2 prerelease marketing. In practice they didn't actually achieve this until recently (arguably they're not quite there yet even now), but this is ultimately because they misjudged what the important roles actually were.

One could call this 'homogenisation', but the professions still play differently, use different mechanics, and bring different things to the table outside of core roles. What it means instead is that people are no longer getting stuck in chronojail or firebrigadejail or the like. Some profession/role combinations are certainly easier than others, and there are a few that just aren't practical yet, but in most cases if you really want to play a specific profession in a role and dedicate yourself to learning how that build works, you can.

[mirage.8046]

On 1/14/2024 at 10:06 PM, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

[sic]
Now though....man, people keep saying the game is dangerously close to be overly homogenized, I'm feeling like we are WAY past that point now. What the hell even is the point of professions aside from pick the color of your skill bar. Even if mesmer portals are better, and they are, I don't think I've ever seen a portal used to capacity so what does it matter?

Oh man you ought to see WvW zergs where a stealthed mesmer sets up a portal and bombs the enemy group. This is where mesmer's portal shines the most. A good chrono can effectively port 40 people (i.e., 80% of a 50-player squad) with two portals thanks to continuum split. 

While homogenization is a real thing, professions at this point only have profession mechanics, skill themes, or specific playstyles to differentiate themselves. Unique stat buffs were fun, but we're long past that era. What would I like? Unique buffs such as tempestuous aria that improve the flow of one's gameplay, venoms, arcane power, even conjure weapons, or soulbeast stances. 

It used to be inflexible so much before EoD and balance patches where you could only play 10-man alac or quick chrono or 10-man alac renegade, heal quick firebrand, druid with spotter, warrior banners. Thief didn't even have a viable healer spec before EoD. Heal scourge was a gigantic meme. Support tempest was unheard of outside WvW.  A lot of us paid a huge price for build varieties at the cost of homogenization.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

1 hour ago, mirage.8046 said:

Oh man you ought to see WvW zergs where a stealthed mesmer sets up a portal and bombs the enemy group. This is where mesmer's portal shines the most. A good chrono can effectively port 40 people (i.e., 80% of a 50-player squad) with two portals thanks to continuum split. 

While homogenization is a real thing, professions at this point only have profession mechanics, skill themes, or specific playstyles to differentiate themselves. Unique stat buffs were fun, but we're long past that era. What would I like? Unique buffs such as tempestuous aria that improve the flow of one's gameplay, venoms, arcane power, even conjure weapons, or soulbeast stances. 

It used to be inflexible so much before EoD and balance patches where you could only play 10-man alac or quick chrono or 10-man alac renegade, heal quick firebrand, druid with spotter, warrior banners. Thief didn't even have a viable healer spec before EoD. Heal scourge was a gigantic meme. Support tempest was unheard of outside WvW.  A lot of us paid a huge price for build varieties at the cost of homogenization.

I have seen that! Only once, and we were on the recieving end.....it went very poorly for us, total slaughter. But I remember that. I was in awe. I just stood there and let them kill me because, I mean, come on. They earned this. I even tried to replicate it, but since I'm not in a guild, or a discord, I can't coordinate. I know how, I'm just not social enough to.

As for the rest of what you said, it's the same arguement I've been having for a long time here, and it's an agree to disagree. You talk about how inflexible it used to be when you were demanded that you must play this build on this profession....and I mean I came here from Guild Wars 1. I remember when you had groups that said LF Trap Ranger, LF Interupt, LF Bonder, and so on and so forth, and if you didn't come with the build they wanted then they'd kick you out. But you also didn't need to go with them in the first place. It's interesting because I've also been talking a lot about the toxicity in Raids and apparently in the T3/T4 Fractals (and presumably Strikes as well, haven't discussed them yet) because you have Fractal/Raid/Strike groups that will tell you exactly what they want, exactly what you need to do and how you need to play or you can hit the pavement. And the funny thing is that most people have turned around and told me that if you get hit with that, find a new group. You don't have to put up with that and there's plenty of other groups you can run with.

ANd I say it's funny because that's actually the answer to what you just said. You call it inflexibility and from a certain perspective you're right. But I'd counter with two points. The first point is that I don't see it as inflexibility. I see it as what I can do that NO ONE else can do. You shouldn't be making demands of me to do what I do, you should be BEGGING me to do what I can do, because I am the gatekeeper. You want my alacrity? Seduce m- I mean, convince me. You want 10 man quickness? THen make it worth my while. I'm the one with the boons you want, I will play my way and if you're willing to work with me I can provide it, OR I could just find another group that will let me play my way. Secondly, ironicly, you talk about having all these options but the way I see it at the end of the day it only ends in one of two ways: Either the game gets balanced enough times and adjusted that literally every profession plays the same way with the same skills and the same boons, just different names and colors, OR we just have competing metas. EVERYONE can do Quickness, EVERYONE can do Alacrity, so now we only really care about who does it best, and when that Raid group posts in the LFG they're only going to care about the one profession that does the best at boon uptime and everyone else can be told to switch to that profession or pound sand, and you're right back where you started again except this time instead of being told to bring your own boon build, whatever that may be, now you're being told to play the build AND profession the group demands.

Look, I get it. I'm not dense, I'm not stupid, I understand your arguement and I understand my own. I think the only thing everyone agrees on is that where we are right now sucks, whether you believe that the professions need more variety, like you seem to, or you think they're overly homogenized already, like I do. All I can really say is that if we're balancing on the edge right now and have to fall down on one side, I would much rather fall down the side where we all have more exclusive abilities and we can flip all the rude, demanding, dictatorial groups the bird and go find someone else than end up in a game where I can play what I'm told to play or I can be replaced by literally anyone else. At least one of those I still have value as my chosen profession, whereas in the other I am literally just a universal spare part to be slotted or discarded as needed, or rather, unwanted.

[Lincolnbeard.1735]

People give to much credit to zergs, average zergling/zerg commander is dumb af. 

I've setup a dozen of these portals behind enemy zerg, getting out of choke points where our zerg was getting rekt, etc, only two or three people go through the portal. And of course our whole zerg gets killed.

Edited January 17 by Lincolnbeard.1735

[draxynnic.3719]

11 hours ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

I have seen that! Only once, and we were on the recieving end.....it went very poorly for us, total slaughter. But I remember that. I was in awe. I just stood there and let them kill me because, I mean, come on. They earned this. I even tried to replicate it, but since I'm not in a guild, or a discord, I can't coordinate. I know how, I'm just not social enough to.

As for the rest of what you said, it's the same arguement I've been having for a long time here, and it's an agree to disagree. You talk about how inflexible it used to be when you were demanded that you must play this build on this profession....and I mean I came here from Guild Wars 1. I remember when you had groups that said LF Trap Ranger, LF Interupt, LF Bonder, and so on and so forth, and if you didn't come with the build they wanted then they'd kick you out. But you also didn't need to go with them in the first place. It's interesting because I've also been talking a lot about the toxicity in Raids and apparently in the T3/T4 Fractals (and presumably Strikes as well, haven't discussed them yet) because you have Fractal/Raid/Strike groups that will tell you exactly what they want, exactly what you need to do and how you need to play or you can hit the pavement. And the funny thing is that most people have turned around and told me that if you get hit with that, find a new group. You don't have to put up with that and there's plenty of other groups you can run with.

ANd I say it's funny because that's actually the answer to what you just said. You call it inflexibility and from a certain perspective you're right. But I'd counter with two points. The first point is that I don't see it as inflexibility. I see it as what I can do that NO ONE else can do. You shouldn't be making demands of me to do what I do, you should be BEGGING me to do what I can do, because I am the gatekeeper. You want my alacrity? Seduce m- I mean, convince me. You want 10 man quickness? THen make it worth my while. I'm the one with the boons you want, I will play my way and if you're willing to work with me I can provide it, OR I could just find another group that will let me play my way. Secondly, ironicly, you talk about having all these options but the way I see it at the end of the day it only ends in one of two ways: Either the game gets balanced enough times and adjusted that literally every profession plays the same way with the same skills and the same boons, just different names and colors, OR we just have competing metas. EVERYONE can do Quickness, EVERYONE can do Alacrity, so now we only really care about who does it best, and when that Raid group posts in the LFG they're only going to care about the one profession that does the best at boon uptime and everyone else can be told to switch to that profession or pound sand, and you're right back where you started again except this time instead of being told to bring your own boon build, whatever that may be, now you're being told to play the build AND profession the group demands.

Look, I get it. I'm not dense, I'm not stupid, I understand your arguement and I understand my own. I think the only thing everyone agrees on is that where we are right now sucks, whether you believe that the professions need more variety, like you seem to, or you think they're overly homogenized already, like I do. All I can really say is that if we're balancing on the edge right now and have to fall down on one side, I would much rather fall down the side where we all have more exclusive abilities and we can flip all the rude, demanding, dictatorial groups the bird and go find someone else than end up in a game where I can play what I'm told to play or I can be replaced by literally anyone else. At least one of those I still have value as my chosen profession, whereas in the other I am literally just a universal spare part to be slotted or discarded as needed, or rather, unwanted.

There are only so many essential roles. This is how you get some professions that could shut down the entire game if their players went on strike, and some professions that are second-class plebs who can only do DPS and have to compete with everyone else for the DPS roles that the all-important supports are able to cover. Mesmer has always had the quickness and alacrity role to fill, although it hasn't always been the best at it, but engineer, thief, elementalist, and necromancer mains might have less fond memories of times when they were competing for the spaces that were left after quickness, alacrity, healing, and banner roles were filled (in fractals, that could mean only two spaces left if you want banners, although some groups were happy to go without) and that's in the PoF meta. In the HoT meta, you could add guardians and revenants to that list. Seriously, your entire post comes across as wanting a monopoly back so you can be one of the first-class players who can fill one of the important roles and lord it over the plebs who can't just like GW1 monks were once able to, including literally saying that people should be begging for you to join. That's just not something that can be done for all of nine professions (that would mean more essential roles than there are slots in a 5-player party).

Again, this isn't some shift in policy. It's what ArenaNet advertised as the aim for GW2's profession and game design. There are lots of MMOs out there that lock roles to specific professions. Mesmer still has plenty of unique and uncommon capabilities, some of which can make certain encounters much easier, it's just that filling an always essential role is no longer one of them. It can still fill those roles, mind you. It just can't monopolise them any more.

Edited January 17 by draxynnic.3719

[Voyant.1327]

On 1/12/2024 at 5:33 PM, Geronmy.3298 said:

You are not allowed to have fun on mesmer unless you play CVirtuoso.

 

 

They've been making that less fun to play since it launched every balance update. This patch nerfs high end cVirts too, simple things like losing 100 points of expertise bc "reasons"

[Geronmy.3298]

6 hours ago, Voyant.1327 said:

They've been making that less fun to play since it launched every balance update. This patch nerfs high end cVirts too, simple things like losing 100 points of expertise bc "reasons"

If you play chaos. You can easily replace it with dueling for a dps increase even today.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

13 hours ago, Seneca.6319 said:

OK you pansies, stop pushing for Heal Chrono! What on earth possessed you to come up with that idea and even have the devs give us that stupid rifle. Go play Guardian or Ranger if you want to heal.

BuT eVeRy PrOfEsSiOn NeEdS a SuPpOrT BuIlD......

[Vinny.7260]

On 1/12/2024 at 3:11 PM, ZephidelGRS.9520 said:

In short, Mantra buffs and farewell to Mirage again.

Mesmer

Condition mirage's damage output is getting toned down after it landed too high with the changes in the November update. The November update also pushed mesmer support builds a bit over the top in WvW, and we're starting with some reductions to its alacrity and quickness access. We'll be keeping a close eye on the effectiveness of these builds once the rifle is available, and we will make additional adjustments as needed to bring them in line with other support builds. Supportive mantras are also getting minor usability improvements to prepare for the release of the rifle.

• Lingering Thoughts: Reduced the number of whirl finishers from 4 to 2.
• Lacerating Chop: Reduced the clone condition durations from 3 seconds to 1 second in PvE only.
• Imaginary Axes: Reduced the clone torment duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Mantra of Pain: Increased the radius from 240 to 360. This mantra no longer requires a target.
• Mantra of Recovery: Increased the radius from 240 to 360.
• Mantra of Resolve: Increased the radius from 240 to 360.
• Mantra of Distraction: This mantra no longer requires a target.
• Split Second: Increased the cooldown from 12 seconds to 15 seconds in WvW only.
• Illusionary Membrane: Reduced the condition damage bonus from 10% to 7% in PvE only.
• Chaotic Persistence: Reduced the expertise from 250 to 150 in PvE only.
• Restorative Mantras: This trait now triggers when using a mantra ammunition skill instead of when charging a mantra. Reduced the base healing from 1,640 to 820. Reduced the healing coefficient from 1.0 to 0.5.
• Escape Artist: Reduced the distortion duration from 5 seconds to 1.5 seconds in WvW only.
• Improved Alacrity: Reduced the alacrity recharge speed from 50% to 35% in WvW only.
• Flow of Time: Reduced the alacrity per clone from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds in WvW only.
• Seize the Moment: Reduced the quickness per clone from 1 second to 0.75 seconds in WvW only.

They were a little over the top with Mirage nerfs. No one was playing it to the same efficiency that Virtuoso was being played to so it didn't need slapped so hard. Mirage was a good alternative for people who wanted to challenge themselves, and be rewarded. The benchmark must've just been too scary. 🥴

Cool that they're buffing Mantras... A little disappointed they didn't specify that Pain Spike or Power Lock are what got the target requirement removal (Mantra of Pain and Mantra of Distraction's activation skills respectively). I'm also a little confused if they mean both the activation AND the pre-cast for the Mantras got the increased radius or not... If they used the actual skill names, that would clear things up. If they increased the radius for things like Power Lock... I could see that being a bit annoying in PvP... It's one of the few Mantras in PvP that do not need that sort of QoL.

The fact Restorative Mantras got put into the activation skills instead of the pre-cast is pretty good, if not necessary. Probably gonna see people using Mantra of Pain for Power Spike to heal allies cuz of the low recharge.

They really cracked down on Chronomancer's support capabilities in WvW. Which was arguably necessary considering the boon output. I think they're wanting Chrono to invest in more boon duration or something. WvW isn't my go-to game mode, just speculation.

 

 

TL;DR

Mirage in PvE: Smacked WAY too hard considering the difficulty.

Mantras: Neat, wish they'd clarify the skill names.

Chrono: Still gonna be a nice option, probably.

 

 

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

It's way worse than that. By hitting Chaos, they directly nerf all Mesmer condi builds since that's the main condi trait line. Well all Mesmer condi builds except Condi Virtuoso, since it doesn't use that line. 

And Mirage got the hammer instantly after 1 patch for daring to out dps Virtuoso.

Really makes you think and wonder. 

Edited January 19 by ZephidelGRS.9520

[Levetty.1279]

Virtuoso isn't even the highest DPs build, calm down.

[Suyheuti.1732]

2 hours ago, Levetty.1279 said:

Virtuoso isn't even the highest DPs build, calm down.

Condi virtuoso is the highest DPS in real combat scenarios. 

[Geronmy.3298]

3 hours ago, Levetty.1279 said:

Virtuoso isn't even the highest DPs build, calm down.

And yet you will see Cvirts topping the meters on almost every fight because benchmarks never tell the real story.

[draxynnic.3719]

As people have said, there's a very big difference between what can be achieved in benchmarks versus what can be achieved in real combat situations by typical players - which is why balancing by benchmarks is a bad idea. CVirt has a fairly simple rotation that's all ranged and difficult for encounter mechanics to disrupt. It's not old riflemech levels of easy, but it's certainly a lot easier to get close to the benchmark while maintaining situational awareness. CVirt is also fairly survivable and easy to add utility to without substantially impacting your rotation.

[Levetty.1279]

It's funny how more people are upset that Mesmer still has one elite spec that Anet refuse to ruin then they are that Anet is ruining Mirage.

Edited January 21 by Levetty.1279

[ShadowKatt.6740]

1 hour ago, Levetty.1279 said:

It's funny how more people are upset that Mesmer still has one elite spec that Anet refuse to ruin then they are that Anet is ruining Mirage.

Look all we want is consistency. If you're going to ruin 3 out of 4 specs, just do the last one already.

It's the waiting we can't stand.