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    Guild Wars 2 What happens if we run GW2 characters through an algorithm to make them "Realistic"

    August 30, 2021

    Guild Wars 2 What happens if we run GW2 characters through an algorithm to make them "Realistic"

    What happens if we run GW2 characters through an algorithm to make them "Realistic"

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 01:56 AM PDT

    d912pxy stopping active development (still available and open-source)

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 03:57 AM PDT

    How to make perfect Raid comp

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 02:11 AM PDT

    Receipt on my physical box says 2013, got my first 100% today. Good to be back!

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 06:28 AM PDT

    First day boosted full zerker weaver be like (my friend, not me)

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 12:38 AM PDT

    Taimi's voice actress is SO GOOD

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 11:18 AM PDT

    My god, I just played season 4 episode 1, and not to be very spoilery, let's say Taimi is the main focus of this episode. Holy shit. It makes this game which has kind of lacking specific animations for what happened, so much better. Voice acting really makes so much difference.

    I actually had a nightmare where I was trying to save Taimi last night too. Yeah, that's how much this chapter moved me.

    AlsofuckBrahamthanksbye.

    submitted by /u/Paganyan
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    Elementalist Elite Specialisation Idea: Primalist

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 03:08 PM PDT

    Stuck in Bronze/Silver/Gold in PvP?

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 08:56 PM PDT

    I am offering free coaching to anyone platinum 1 and below for Conquest / General class mechanics. This should help you be more effective in 5v5 matches, as well as help you in WvW roaming if you are so inclined!

    Below are the classes I am capable of coaching:

    ​

    Class Core HoT PoF
    Mesmer Power Core Condi / Power Chrono Sidenode Condi / +1 Mirage
    Revenant Core Condi Condi / Power Herald Power Renegade
    Necromancer Condi / Power Core Power Reaper Support Scourge
    Ranger Power Core Decap Druid Power / Condi Soulbeast
    Warrior - - Support / Power Spellbreaker
    Elementalist - - Fire / FA Weaver
    Thief P/D Core Condi D/P Daredevil -

    ​

    Coaching will be done over a Discord call. We will run over optimal settings, key binds, class specific mechanics, matchups/counters, general rotation advice, and anything else you might not be aware of! Alternatively, you could also send in a replay of one of your matches (ideally a close game where you lose) and we can run over what you did wrong or what you did right during the match.

    ​

    You can contact me on Discord at Bear#5730 and we can set up a time there!

    Have a nice day!

    submitted by /u/Stale_Bear
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    Axe Mirage is good in Raids - even after the Confusion changes

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 08:20 AM PDT

    Hi there!

    Before you read any of this: If you are running arcdps, make sure you download the most recent version. The August 17th confusion change broke the way logs simulate confusion damage, which makes Mirages look a lot worse than they are. The August 28th patch fixes the issue. Make sure you update your arcdps so you get accurate logs.

    Introduction

    On August 17th, Anet has decided to change the way confusion works. In short, confusion is now a condition (like bleeding) that has passive tick damage. But as before, it still does extra damage whenever the target activates a skill - just half as much as before.

    Condition Mirage was ridiculously broken before the confusion changes on exactly three raid bosses, which happened to attack very fast: Twin Largos, Soulless Horror and Cairn. On the first two, it was broken to an extent that you were, in my view, trolling if you didn't play it. It very easily did 20-50% more DPS than other DPS classes - many of which you would call broken on their own (Condition Firebrand, Condition Renegade, Condition Scourge). To put it simply - on those bosses, no other class was able to keep up with the confusion ticks.

    With the patch, Arenanet "normalized" confusion damage. It still does more when the boss attacks fast, but it also has a better baseline on slow attacking bosses. In the end, very little changes for most bosses (because most bosses have a fairly average attack speed), a few slow attacking bosses now take a bit more damage (e.g. Deimos, Dhuum, Keep Construct) - and on the fast-attacking bosses, Mirage is a lot less egregious.

    Conclusion: It's a targeted nerf at the bosses where Mirage was broken that changes nothing about the bosses where Mirage was not broken. This is a case of good balancing work. Good job, Arenanet!

    What happened

    When I expressed my thoughts on the confusion changes, many people vehemently disagreed. The most common sentiment was: It's okay that Axe Mirage was OP on 3 bosses, because it's unplayable everywhere else. If I like Mirage, now there are zero bosses where I can play it. Anet ruined my class.

    I would have maybe agreed with those sentiments on May 10th - even though Mirage being bad at other bosses never kept me from playing it there :) But then came the May 11th patch.

    In this patch, Alacrity Staff Mirage was born. Most importantly, the Chaos traitline was repurposed into a "Condition Damage" traitline. Torment was changed. No nerfs happened to compensate (unlike Condi Renegade who deservedly got hit over the head since then.) This is really good. It immediately moved the Mirage benchmark from about 29k DPS up to around 36k DPS. This did not include Confusion damage, by the way.

    (Small thing I'm excited about: If Anet manages to implement combo fields properly so you prioritize your own fields, May 11th patch has added an Ethereal field. Right now, this doesn't do much because of overlapping light fields, but once this changes... oh boy. This will be awesome.)

    Before the May 11th patch, Mirage relied on Confusion damage to turn a bad benchmark into something mediocre (or extremely broken on confusion bosses) in actual fights.

    After May 11th patch, the torment change + the absurdly strong Chaos traitline (you get hundreds of stat points for free, as well as ridiculous damage modifiers on condition damage) brought it to 36k DPS on the golem. This is in line with other condition classes, like Condition Soulbeast, Condition Holosmith, Condition Scourge, and also most power classes.

    This meant, that assuming you played your class well, you were able to keep up on all boss fights - no matter how fast the boss attacks. All confusion damage is just a free bonus on top allowing you to outdps other classes. Or, is it?

    Well, not really. Mirage has one issue: It takes a while to ramp up. So you wouldn't reach your 36k benchmark. When the boss phases after 15 seconds, you are maybe only at 25k, making you much worse than other classes.

    Luckily, in practice, for 99% of raiders, almost all raid bosses don't phase fast enough for this to matter at all. Sure, Vale Guardian sounds bad, if you phase him within 14 seconds like in the World Record. But an average group will spend 30+ seconds in a phase, so Mirage is going to have plenty of time to ramp up.

    Let's jump ahead to the August 17th patch. As I said, this just shifted around numbers on the non-confusion bosses. The benchmark is now at 40k DPS, since the Golem now takes confusion damage.Given enough time, Mirage will seriously hurt raid bosses, even if they are not fast attackers.

    Consequences

    As a consequence, Mirage is fine now. I'm serious. Yes, it has lost a lot of DPS on Soulless Horror and Twin Largos. In my mind, it's still "quite good" on Cairn (1.77 seconds per attack) + MO (2.55 seconds per attack), as I've realized this morning:

    https://dps.report/JAml-20210830-102901_cairn

    https://dps.report/WBLh-20210830-103320_mo

    But the most important change, that has made Mirage finally a viable and decent class, not just for 3 bosses, but for an actual raid clear with pugs and maybe even with an accepting static, was the May 11th torment change. Mirage now has enough DPS to not rely on confusion ticks. Confusion ticks are a bonus that make the class "Best in Slot" on the confusion bosses. This is good, desirable balance. Have circumstances where the class is really strong, and others where it is just fine. Binary design where it's either useless or literally gamebreaking is bad.

    Mirage is clearly best when bosses don't phase that fast, but they generally don't phase fast enough for this to matter. There are some exceptions, especially in high-end groups.

    Note on Utility

    Axe Mirage certainly doesn't bring a whole lot to the group. It can do some amount of CC, it can do a lot more CC if you sacrifice some DPS. It provides some Aegis + Resolution, but it's really not all that great. You pick Mirage if you want DPS. It is quite good at that. Most importantly, Mirage is very safe. It has a medium size health pool (Mesmer), Distortion F4 shatter for Emergencies (blocking Sloth Shake), a really strong heal skill and a lot of Evades.

    Data collection

    I don't just claim all of that without actually playing Mirage. This morning, I've joined a W1-4 250 LI pug group (See the Cairn + MO linked above). Except for Spirit Run, Escort, Twisted Castle and Bandit Trio, I played only Axe Mirage. It went well. Obviously I did good DPS in comparison to the others because I know what I'm doing and the average player is not as experienced. But still, it's a class that I wouldn't be afraid to play for regular clears, even with way more experienced raiders.

    Here are some boss specific notes:

    VG: Careful with blues, you have a lot of evades, use them wisely. Don't get ported during an Axe 2 (remember that you can dodge during Axe 2, although it loses you a bit of DPS since a clone that is about to Ambush will be destroyed during its animation.) Ironically, Red Guardian has the lowest attack speed of the three split guardians, which means that you technically do more damage if you go to a different guardian at split. But you probably should go to red guardian so someone else can play power. Use F4 to invuln green circles, especially in P3 where it's always very tight.

    Gorseval: Tantrum retaliation kills your clones quickly. Use F3 shatter to CC because they are going to die anyway. Then hope that the rest of the group has also brought some CC so your new clones will not die to the tantrum. In the split phase, switch spirits earlier than your group (remember the rampup), and use Axe 3 to transfer your clones from spirit to spirit.If your group has no Aegis / SYG for the slams, you can play Chaos 1 - 3 - 3 if you want to have stability for yourself, although your frequent dodges should also cover that, but maybe it doesn't fit into the opener.

    Sabetha: Don't Axe 3 during the flame wall. Use Axe 3 to repurpose the clones from Sabetha to the Add, then from the Add back to Sabetha. If you use Axe 3 on Sabetha immediately when she returns (add hits 25% health -> Sabetha returns), you will always be safe from the flame wall :) You can axe 2 through Sabetha's hitbox even during the flamewall.

    Slothasor: Don't kill the slubling at the start. You can't dodge out of blue circles, it's tricky to walk out. You can blink out using Jaunt though. Remember you can reapply Conditions during the breakbar. F4 distort for Shake and they will all love you. Eat a shroom if possible.

    Matthias: This is your time to shine. Take Feedback if you must. CC as much as needed so nobody dies. If you want to F3 the sacrifice, you need to Axe 3 -> F3 to make your clones switch target and CC the right guy. Personally I'd rather use my signet of domination for CC than cripple my DPS like that. Chaos 1 - 3 - 3 is quite cool because Stability is sweet here.

    Keep Construct: Do your best golem rotation. Confusion now does some damage in burn phase when KC is stunned - yay? Outside of the burn phase you are a good class with a high benchmark though - but in pugs, most of the damage comes from pushing 3-5 orbs and having a burn phase from 85% to 66%, so you will look very bad in arcdps. I don't recommend playing Axe Mirage here.

    Xera: Lackluster in the pre-event, great in the first phase, mediocre in the second phase (getting teleported to the minigame ruins your ramp-up). You are also bad at clearing shards, and if Xera ever touches shards she cleanses all those sweet condis. This fight is mechanically more hostile to you than KC, even though you will probably perform better than on KC.

    Cairn: It is still good.

    MO: Golem rotation. On this boss it's realistic to beat the Golem benchmark, since you get even more damage from confusion :)

    Samarog: Don't apply Condis during the breakbar and you'll do just fine unless the group is very slow at cc'ing and has high DPS. Go ham on Guldhem + Rigom. The great thing about Mirage is that you don't really have any long cooldowns. When a new phase starts, you will be able to start with your normal golem opener again. Contrast this with e.g. Power Chrono who only gets to do a good opener once every 80 seconds.

    Deimos: This fight is challenging to play and Mirage isn't particularly great at it. You can still carry your own weight though, especially when Saul is handled well. (Saul D'Alessio's aggro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PTT7yrG2R8 )

    If I had to rate Mirage on the bosses:

    Obviously great: Cairn, MO, Matthias

    Play it, it's cool: VG, Gorseval, Sabetha, Slothasor, Samarog

    Ehh, it's stressful and maybe not worth the effort: Xera, KC, Deimos

    If you want to include W5 to 7:

    Obviously great: SH, Largos, Sabir, Qadim the Peerless

    Play it, it's cool: Dhuum, Adina (only if your group needs to go behind pillars anyway. Torment does less damage since Adina counts as moving)

    Ehh, it's stressful and maybe not worth the effort: CA, Qadim (hitbox = death...), Adina (if your group plans to finish the boss before the enrage timer)

    Conclusion

    To all you Mirage-loving players out there: Give it a go. The times where Mirage was literally only good where confusion was strong are over, and have been over for close to 4 months.

    The recent confusion changes changed nothing substantial about the viability of Axe Mirage, do not worry about them. Is Mirage better than other classes? On Confusion bosses, it always has been, and it still is despite the nerf. On all other bosses? No it isn't, but that shouldn't be the aim. Our aim should be to have a viable build that is good, and will not fall behind others.

    Yes, Utility DPS classes exist, yes, some of them offer the same DPS for less effort with more utility. Some of those things should be addressed going forward, and I hope anet takes a good look at some of the classes. The Scourge changes in the most recent patch were a good start.

    But if you already want to play Axe Mirage and were worried that your class is now bad: Don't worry. Just enjoy playing the class.

    submitted by /u/Training-Accident-36
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    My buddy and i completed our Legendaries on the same day!

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 11:32 AM PDT

    Why do so many Thief players want an Assassin elite spec, when the core class pretty much does the same things already?

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 01:27 PM PDT

    Why do so many Thief players want an Assassin elite spec, when the core class pretty much does the same things already?

    The theme of the Assassin from GW1 is pretty much the GW2 Thief. You even have a GW2 variation of the GW1 Assassin's Lead/Offhand/Dual Weapon mechanics.

    Thief also has the shadowsteps, Critical Strikes, Shadow Arts and Deadly Arts. What does Assassin do that Thief doesn't already do? They even have some of the same skills. Is it the name alone that Thief players want?

    If its something else, please 🙏 tell. I want to understand.

    submitted by /u/Knighthonor
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    Ive got 4k gems to blow and the wait is killing me

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 08:40 AM PDT

    That sound you hear before you plummet in a nightmare.

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 08:27 AM PDT

    Daybreak: Stand Your Ground achievement easy trick with Skyscale

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 07:40 PM PDT

    Not sure if this has been shared before, but I couldn't find anything like this on google. If you still haven't gotten the "Stand Your Ground" achievement from the Scruffy 2.0 fight and are having trouble with it, I have a relatively easy trick to get it, but it requires the skyscale.

    After you finish the second electrical storms phase, Scruffy will set fire to the edges of the arena. Stall a bit and let some of the fire disappear before you reduce his HP further. Once you get him to 5% then run away and avoid damage to get out of combat as soon as you can. If you do it right, you can mount up just before the ammunition discharge starts. Now be aware that rising too high above the platform will count as "leaving" it and disqualify you; so jump in slow enough intervals to get your skyscale hovering as low as possible (like 1 second between jump and flap). After you are hovering, make sure you still have the eligibility buff. DO NOT MOVE or you risk losing eligibility. Eventually a storm will circle around and "catch" you, dragging you around and making it impossible for the cannons to target you. Just sit there and do nothing until the barrage is over and you will get the achievement. Hope this helps someone.

    submitted by /u/sooshey
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    Does ArenaNet ever bother fixing story bugs blocking *entire story progression*?

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 09:35 PM PDT

    This has got to be the fourth of fifth time that I've encountered these breaking bugs in IBS missions alone, which block story progress entirely.

    In the "One Charr, One Dragon, One Champion" story mission, it seems that the NPCs are supposed to break down the ice wall for you. However, they seem to just get entirely stuck, standing around doing nothing. I've spent nearly an hour on this, re-entering the instances repeatedly, and it's the same thing every time.

    A quick Google search shows that this bug has been filed many times , some from *over a year ago*, and, it's still around:

    https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/79605-one-charr-one-dragon-one-champion-instance-bug/

    https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/79529-solved-one-charr-one-dragon-one-champ-no-spoiler-question-unless-the-answer-must-spoil/

    https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/95967-one-charr-one-dragon-one-champion-ice-wall-bug/

    Does ANet even bother trying to fix these completely game breaking bugs on these releases, or do they just hope that things fix themselves?

    What's worse, is that when filing a support ticket, you get an automated response telling us to "post the bugs on the forums" -- which seems like a completely futile effort given that this has been unfixed for over a year now after many many forum posts!

    It's possible that I'm just frustrated and venting here, but this definitely does not bode well for the upcoming expansion. These past two seasons of LS have been an absolute mess with quality control, whether it's that broken "shooting Kralkatorrk" mechanic in LS4, to complete progress-blocking bugs like this. How does this inspire any amount of confidence in the developers when they don't bother doing proper testing for entire story missions?

    submitted by /u/SuperAwesomeCats
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    So I have this Mesmer I created with this U-shaped mustache thing, and I showed it to other people. They thought I just created a serial killer.

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 08:45 AM PDT

    Completed Exordium

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 03:57 PM PDT

    Switiching to dagger during the idle staff animation got a pretty cool result

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 10:24 PM PDT

    I've been experimenting with a custom Reshade preset all day, and I'm really happy how it turned out! Focused on realistic colours, moody shadows and an overall cozy palette.

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 10:25 AM PDT

    After 5 years I finally crafted the best sword ever (Besides Sohothin)

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT

    Elementalist makes other classes feel basic to me.

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 02:00 PM PDT

    Anyone else having this issue? I am trying really hard to like other classes besides my main elementalist. Every time i try to level up an alt i just feel so basic having so little amount of abilities.

    Maybe im just spoiled by feeling like the bloody airbender when playing elementalist i dunno. The gameplay of the class feels so good, i just wish other classes could just use 4 skill bars as well.

    Its really a shame since i do wanne experience the game with other classes, but i keep failing. What class is most similar in gameplay to elementalist?

    submitted by /u/Anakhsunamon
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    Apparently you can get trapped inside of the chest as it spawns after the Gathering Storms meta... the Return to Sandswept Isles should be fun.

    Posted: 29 Aug 2021 06:58 PM PDT

    Please help. I really want to enjoy Condi Renegade but the weapon swap makes absolutely no sense.

    Posted: 30 Aug 2021 08:44 AM PDT

    I really love playing Alac Renegade in Fractals and raids, camping swords and only really switching to staff when CC is needed. It feels impactful and just right.

    With Condi Renegade however the weapon swap makes no damn sense. It doesn't seem to follow any logic. The weapon skill cooldowns are already short enough and utility skills have you energy starved almost all the time anyways. It feels like the legend swap is exactly what the weapon swap should be and the weapon swap feels tacked on and clunky like the class was never designed around having it in the first place...

    Please enlighten me, I really want to enjoy it but I can't wrap my head around it.

    Right now I'm just sitting here, wishing we will be able to camp Greatsword with the new elite spec and don't have to worry about that mess...

    submitted by /u/kodokume
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