Firebeard.1746

> @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

So Aegis blocks the pulsing AOE fire damage he stands in after he does his AOE attack? Is this the passive aegis from the virtue or a different ability? I'm not super familiar with guardian, so please forgive my noobishness.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > It's not. Melee is still the higher DPS option and most groups seem to need as much DPS as they can get. I also feel that everyone should just go full DPS because most of the people I see that do go DPS are doing less than 10K which won't be enough if there are support players. I see too many people trying to get a balanced party but that only works if your DPS can actually DPS.

> >

> > In my experience it may be meta for the same reason you say having everyone DPS is meta, most people struggle with the intensity of mechanics in melee. I think it's pretty telling the group that died more was also the one we barely failed on.

> >

> > I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably absolutely right that well-played melee is better.

>

> The issue is that ranged attacks are lower DPS and it’s low DPS that is causing people to fail. Having players all go range is just setting them up to fail even more.

>

> There’s really no reason to fail mechanics. The Thunderhead boss is pretty much the matriarch wyvern. The FoR boss players just have to get out away from the boss when it does the telegraph for the one attack. It’s not like it’s a raid which is throwing many mechanics at you at once.

Umm so what about those burn pulses the FoR boss stands in for many seconds at a time? I know for a fact that I was not even hitting my power GS dps from arc when i decided to power chrono. Admittedly I did die, but even before I did, I noticed those DPS numbers dropping lower. Pretty sure I know power Chrono decently well. I'm not a top SC player by any means but can get higher than 20k on a golem, which imo is acceptable and I haven't gotten yelled at when i have in my trainings.

> @"Linken.6345" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > > > > > @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> > > > > > > > > Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

> > > > > > > >

> > > > > > > > So much balance, that class diversity right there......

> > > > > > > >

> > > > > > > > To be brutally clear, it's not that I want guardians nerfed, I just think too many mechanics are hard countered by them. I feel like when such large disparities in class capability exist, it's a clear balance problem.

> > > > > > >

> > > > > > > First off, every class is very much capable of doing the CMs. Secondly, with all of the classes/builds in the game as well as the numerous encounters, it's unreasonable to assume that every class/build would be equally balanced for every encounter. I mean, in your OP you were claiming range to be meta. Would that be considered balanced? It's wrong to assume that things are not balanced just because something else is optimal.

> > > > > >

> > > > > > What meta doesn't feature guard? I'm fine with something being meta in certain encounters, for example I'm sure melee is meta in the original CMs for DRMs, it's just guard is heavily features in almost any meta. I can't think of an encounter where you wouldn't want a guard, but you can't say the same thing for every class. That, to me, is a heavy indicator that professions are not well balanced.

> > > > > >

> > > > >

> > > > > Then it's a matter of preference regarding what's unbalanced. You find ranged being preferred over melee perfectly okay but dislike how certain classes may be more preferred in **optimal** situations. In both situations a group of players are being preferred but in only one of them you are negatively affected. Meta, or optimal, comps are not the only way that something can be done. This has been repeated over and over since the game launched. You can easily complete every DRM CM with all DPS players assuming that they can do actual DPS and not completely fail mechanics. Every class is capable of doing enough DPS.

> > > >

> > > > You've massively misinterpreted what I've said, not sure if a conversation is even valuable anymore. I gave an example where ranged isn't meta and clearly said I'm fine with metas changing between encounters, it's when something features over and over there's a problem. Also note, you're talking about playstyle metas, I'm talking about profession metas. Also note guardian isn't meta just because of DPS, it's the defensive capabilities that make it so preferred. It has those AND damage. PROFESSION balance is what I started talking about. If you keep going off about ranged, you're missing the point entirely.

> > >

> > > I'm not misinterpreting anything. I simply highlighted a contradictory/hypocritical part of your post where you were fine with ranged being meta over melee but took issue with a certain build being meta over others.

> >

> > You absolutely are:

> >

> > " What meta doesn't feature guard? **I'm fine with something being meta in certain encounters, for example I'm sure melee is meta in the original CMs for DRMs**, it's just guard is heavily features in almost any meta. I can't think of an encounter where you wouldn't want a guard, but you can't say the same thing for every class. That, to me, is a heavy indicator that **professions** are not well balanced. "

> >

> > I never said I wanted range in every scenario. And again, you're focused on playstyle when I started talking about professions.

> >

> > This entire thread was started about two SPECIFIC DRMs. I never claimed range was meta for everything.

>

> Range is not meta for anything, its a lot easier then melee but that dont make it meta in any way shape or form.

> Thunder head peak you have to be melee range to kill eggs you cant range them.

I think this has already been covered (i haven't argued back with anyone above who agrees with you), i was just calling them out on them misrepresenting what I was saying and completely sidestepping the issue that is guardian is basically the top profession right now.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > > > @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> > > > > > > Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

> > > > > >

> > > > > > So much balance, that class diversity right there......

> > > > > >

> > > > > > To be brutally clear, it's not that I want guardians nerfed, I just think too many mechanics are hard countered by them. I feel like when such large disparities in class capability exist, it's a clear balance problem.

> > > > >

> > > > > First off, every class is very much capable of doing the CMs. Secondly, with all of the classes/builds in the game as well as the numerous encounters, it's unreasonable to assume that every class/build would be equally balanced for every encounter. I mean, in your OP you were claiming range to be meta. Would that be considered balanced? It's wrong to assume that things are not balanced just because something else is optimal.

> > > >

> > > > What meta doesn't feature guard? I'm fine with something being meta in certain encounters, for example I'm sure melee is meta in the original CMs for DRMs, it's just guard is heavily features in almost any meta. I can't think of an encounter where you wouldn't want a guard, but you can't say the same thing for every class. That, to me, is a heavy indicator that professions are not well balanced.

> > > >

> > >

> > > Then it's a matter of preference regarding what's unbalanced. You find ranged being preferred over melee perfectly okay but dislike how certain classes may be more preferred in **optimal** situations. In both situations a group of players are being preferred but in only one of them you are negatively affected. Meta, or optimal, comps are not the only way that something can be done. This has been repeated over and over since the game launched. You can easily complete every DRM CM with all DPS players assuming that they can do actual DPS and not completely fail mechanics. Every class is capable of doing enough DPS.

> >

> > You've massively misinterpreted what I've said, not sure if a conversation is even valuable anymore. I gave an example where ranged isn't meta and clearly said I'm fine with metas changing between encounters, it's when something features over and over there's a problem. Also note, you're talking about playstyle metas, I'm talking about profession metas. Also note guardian isn't meta just because of DPS, it's the defensive capabilities that make it so preferred. It has those AND damage. PROFESSION balance is what I started talking about. If you keep going off about ranged, you're missing the point entirely.

>

> I'm not misinterpreting anything. I simply highlighted a contradictory/hypocritical part of your post where you were fine with ranged being meta over melee but took issue with a certain build being meta over others.

You absolutely are:

" What meta doesn't feature guard? **I'm fine with something being meta in certain encounters, for example I'm sure melee is meta in the original CMs for DRMs**, it's just guard is heavily features in almost any meta. I can't think of an encounter where you wouldn't want a guard, but you can't say the same thing for every class. That, to me, is a heavy indicator that **professions** are not well balanced. "

I never said I wanted range in every scenario, i'm just wondering where this hyporcisy comes from. And again, you're focused on playstyle when I started talking about professions. Maybe you can highlight what I said that gave you this impression?

This entire thread was started about two SPECIFIC DRMs. I never claimed range was meta for everything.

> @"Shadowmoon.7986" said:

> The meta is knowing how to use the dodge key.

Well if I'm to believe the randos in my PuGs, this boss is harder than a raid boss and/or fractal CM (at least the few who've commented), but sure let's just assume they're really bad players, totally constructive.

Though i would argue dodging is a terrible mechanic for a latency based always online game and boss mechanics. It basically means either the telegraphs are so long everyone is totally out of it, or it's so clutch any miss in latency and you're dead.

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> I think we need to establish a ground rule here ... . meta is not based on what someone 'experiences'. It's an estimation of what builds are best for an encounter based on empirical evidence and the encounter mechanics assuming the player is capable of handling the mechanics of the encounter and the rotation of the build.

>

> It doesn't make sense to conclude what is meta based on what you see as successful or not.

I somewhat agree. That makes sense. But also note if a player in a group is incapable of playing the "raw, highest DPS meta" that perhaps a different playstyle is their actual meta. An interesting case of this I can tell you about was arcane meta in WoW during BFA, equipoise was the go-to trait, yet, I created a high mana generation build that did better with arcane pummeling against most other mage players of the same or lower ilvl (I even beat some arcane mages with higher ilvl). I knew I wouldn't do well with that build because I suck at burst windows, so I built a build that was better for my playstyle and i ended up crushing players who were incapable of playing that "optimal" meta. I would still lose against a good player, but they were rare in my raid PuGs. I even topped the charts occaisionally. So there is a difference between an absolute meta and the meta for a given group. Which is my biggest issue with the GW2 community as a whole, I feel like players tend to get criticized for self honesty, It might also be a weakness of the game's design that does this. The skill gap between players is much higher on this MMO than any other and as I've mentioned in other threads, there's no ilvl climb that can compensate for bad skill.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> > > > > Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

> > > >

> > > > So much balance, that class diversity right there......

> > > >

> > > > To be brutally clear, it's not that I want guardians nerfed, I just think too many mechanics are hard countered by them. I feel like when such large disparities in class capability exist, it's a clear balance problem.

> > >

> > > First off, every class is very much capable of doing the CMs. Secondly, with all of the classes/builds in the game as well as the numerous encounters, it's unreasonable to assume that every class/build would be equally balanced for every encounter. I mean, in your OP you were claiming range to be meta. Would that be considered balanced? It's wrong to assume that things are not balanced just because something else is optimal.

> >

> > What meta doesn't feature guard? I'm fine with something being meta in certain encounters, for example I'm sure melee is meta in the original CMs for DRMs, it's just guard is heavily features in almost any meta. I can't think of an encounter where you wouldn't want a guard, but you can't say the same thing for every class. That, to me, is a heavy indicator that professions are not well balanced.

> >

>

> Then it's a matter of preference regarding what's unbalanced. You find ranged being preferred over melee perfectly okay but dislike how certain classes may be more preferred in **optimal** situations. In both situations a group of players are being preferred but in only one of them you are negatively affected. Meta, or optimal, comps are not the only way that something can be done. This has been repeated over and over since the game launched. You can easily complete every DRM CM with all DPS players assuming that they can do actual DPS and not completely fail mechanics. Every class is capable of doing enough DPS.

You've massively misinterpreted what I've said, not sure if a conversation is even valuable anymore. I gave an example where ranged isn't meta and clearly said I'm fine with metas changing between encounters, it's when something features over and over there's a problem. Also note, you're talking about playstyle metas, I'm talking about profession metas. Also note guardian isn't meta just because of DPS, it's the defensive capabilities that make it so preferred. It has those AND damage. PROFESSION balance is what I started talking about. If you keep going off about ranged, you're missing the point entirely.

>

> > Also it's insane as far as balance is concerned to have a meta be stacking multiple classes of the same type when the total party size isn't even big enough to have 1 of every class.

> >

>

> What should a party have one of every class? Why should an encounter be balanced around you needing one of every class?

Why have any more professions if one is god? I've never seen an MMO where the devs thought it was healthy to have 1 god class until now. The whole point on an RPG is to play a class you identify with, so being sub-par just because you want to have fun is bad. I thought that was just generally understood.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> > > Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

> >

> > So much balance, that class diversity right there......

> >

> > To be brutally clear, it's not that I want guardians nerfed, I just think too many mechanics are hard countered by them. I feel like when such large disparities in class capability exist, it's a clear balance problem.

>

> First off, every class is very much capable of doing the CMs. Secondly, with all of the classes/builds in the game as well as the numerous encounters, it's unreasonable to assume that every class/build would be equally balanced for every encounter. I mean, in your OP you were claiming range to be meta. Would that be considered balanced? It's wrong to assume that things are not balanced just because something else is optimal.

What meta doesn't feature guard? I'm fine with something being meta in certain encounters, for example I'm sure melee is meta in the original CMs for DRMs, it's just guard is heavily features in almost any meta. I can't think of an encounter where you wouldn't want a guard, but you can't say the same thing for every class. That, to me, is a heavy indicator that professions are not well balanced.

Also it's insane as far as balance is concerned to have a meta be stacking multiple classes of the same type when the total party size isn't even big enough to have 1 of every class.

Many classes have a ranged option. Almost anyone playing an RPG likes to main and/or play a given class, and as far as that's concerned i feel like any individual profession should be very competitive against any other in a given encounter (perhaps they need to change build, but they should still bring something).

> @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

So much balance, that class diversity right there......

To be brutally clear, it's not that I want guardians nerfed, I just think too many mechanics are hard countered by them. I feel like when such large disparities in class capability exist, it's a clear balance problem.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > It's not. Melee is still the higher DPS option and most groups seem to need as much DPS as they can get. I also feel that everyone should just go full DPS because most of the people I see that do go DPS are doing less than 10K which won't be enough if there are support players. I see too many people trying to get a balanced party but that only works if your DPS can actually DPS.

> >

> > In my experience it may be meta for the same reason you say having everyone DPS is meta, most people struggle with the intensity of mechanics in melee. I think it's pretty telling the group that died more was also the one we barely failed on.

> >

> > I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably absolutely right that well-played melee is better.

>

> The issue is that ranged attacks are lower DPS and it’s low DPS that is causing people to fail. Having players all go range is just setting them up to fail even more.

>

> There’s really no reason to fail mechanics. The Thunderhead boss is pretty much the matriarch wyvern. The FoR boss players just have to get out away from the boss when it does the telegraph for the one attack. It’s not like it’s a raid which is throwing many mechanics at you at once.

I feel like there's been times I've been out of the AOE but still got burn pulsed on me if I stood too close, there's also been a few other times where something caught me off guard, not sure what, but whatever. Dead people don't do damage. i don't think I'm wrong in my assesment that some people are so bad at avoiding damage that they'd be better off ranged. To each their own. In fact I'm fairly certain we wouldn't have failed FoR if some of my team mates were.

EDIT: It's also not truthful that there's no overlapping mechanics in FoR, he does spawn the flame wave and does his attack separately from it. I believe there's another AOE as well that can happen simultaneously (circles). In fact sometimes there's so many it piles up something nasty.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> It's not. Melee is still the higher DPS option and most groups seem to need as much DPS as they can get. I also feel that everyone should just go full DPS because most of the people I see that do go DPS are doing less than 10K which won't be enough if there are support players. I see too many people trying to get a balanced party but that only works if your DPS can actually DPS.

In my experience it may be meta for the same reason you say having everyone DPS is meta, most people struggle with the intensity of mechanics in melee. I think it's pretty telling the group that died more was also the one we barely failed on.

I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably absolutely right that well-played melee is better.

As a mirage mesmer, For kicks and giggles I decided to equip my GS (diviner's -> I don't keep pure DPS one because it's not really meta for the content I do with my GS build) on my sword zerker's set and in a random group we cleared TP DRM with 45 seconds to spare. We barely missed the timer on FOR (30s) BUT I died once and my team was constantly dying. I feel like the bosses on these DRMs heavily punish melee builds and almost all SC and DPS builds are melee heavy. Granted my randoms in the TP one knew mechanics, so we didn't die during spears and adds were light. But I think more people need to be running as close to pure ranged DPS as possible, if you have a ranged support build, I guess that works if you have pure DPS you can amplify on your team to a point where it's better with you + them as support instead of DPS.

~~And to those of you saying "they're not that bad" do you or do you not agree with me that the grindy ones suck? What we tolerate now will be a portent of what they're okay with later and I believe there's been far more grindy MPs this saga than ever before. ~~

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> I have 8 extra Icebrood Saga Mastery Points, and I surely have not done the metas more than, at most, 4 or 5 times, if that.

> Often, the Mastery Points are given on a lower tier than max.

> Glory to the Legions only took a few days.

> You may need to peruse the requirements for Mastery Points in the Hero Panel.

Of how much /played time? I do DW off and on and still dont' have it. Yes there's more than you need, but you say you have extras when you've done a ton of the grindy ones. The glory to the legions are 6 total I believe. And to those of you saying "they're not that bad" do you or do you not agree with me that the grindy ones suck? What we tolerate now will be a portent of what they're okay with later and I believe there's been far more grindy MPs this saga than ever before.

Having played a class that was nerfed to oblivion (mesmer) in PVP, I have to say that the devs need to take "nerf this" threads with a grain of salt and focus on win rates and matchups as it relates to some metric for measuring skill (maybe player actions per minute in combat). I feel like if they just listen to you, you might be asking for nerfs to make your class "top" with no viable counter. Which is what i feel MOST nerf this threads are. I will say guardian, both core and DH seemed to be kind of ridiculous while I was trying to wrap up ascension. I hope I can come back to PVP, I'm waiting on matchmaker changes that are announced and more griefers/botters being banned. I think the last straw for me was someone who was cheating saying "enjoy your free legendaries" in chat like it wasn't a big deal. Honey, 1) my time is precious, so getting progress at 1/3rd the rate I could is little consolation. 2) I was working on ascension, namely the wins portion and so all they did was force me into more matches than I'd like to play. and 3) If it's all "free" why bother cheating? What an entitled attitude to have like you deserve things faster than everyone else. That's why i really want them to base pips per match mostly on PVP rank and then when they catch cheaters, nerf their rank to hell and freeze rank gain for at least 6 months (o yeah and keep F2P out of ranked, the cost for cheating is too low). And you're still rewarded for winning in this system, you gain rank faster, hence more pips. You just lose it all if you're a kitten.

Also am I the only one who realizes most of the best classes in PVP are the ones with the highest HP pools by default (guardian being the exception, but it has auto-blocks which work as effective HP)? that's my issue with 'glass cannon' classes being built into the game. Eventually enough people with better survivability complain and then there's no point to being one.

> @"Kitich.4580" said:

> I pronounce it also in kind of German way sometimes, like B-yora. Or B-jora.

As a speaker of Dutch and German (though perhaps getting rusty) this is always how I've said it in my head.

I don't want Aurene to die. If she leaves the story I want it to be because she feels like she'd upset the balance, kind of like Kormir left. But I'll miss her. They focused so much of the story around her and her development I still want us to talk to her some times.

I'm not saying there should be no grinds in this game, MMOs need them on some level in order to survive, but I don't think they're appropriate as Mastery points, I feel like it discourages more casual players from getting them and enjoying them in other settings. IB has had quite few: the storms winter Mastery point, the North meta mastery point and then the glory to the legions MPs. I consider the crafting collection MPs also grindy because they're basically gold grind sinks. I felt like most of the Maguuma, PoF (not including grindy ones like war eternal) and core tyria MPs were more appropriate because you could take them at your own pace and it felt like most of them I could just focus on and earn, then enjoy in game as I did other stuff. I know when I talked to one of my super casual friends in real life when I mention the grindy ones he just shudders. They're a combination of end game progression but also experience and tying them to grinds specifically locks people who don't play this game in a grindy fashion out.

On an only tangentially related note, I want to say I wish the devs would stop making most game modes super beneficial for grinding them and them only. Some good examples are WvW Pip boxes, raids (because of the collections needed to craft stuff, sometimes it's multi-layer making you go back), PVP pip boxes, fractals etc. This game has a very broad number of game modes and by tying the best rewards to players just focusing on one I feel burns people out. I feel like there should be rewards tied to jack of all trades playstyles as opposed to just doing 1 thing until your eyes bleed. I don't really feel like specialized gameplay is showing this game's true strength: the breadth of content it's developed over the years. I'm not saying take away the rewards for being committed to a game mode, I'm just saying that I feel most players would enjoy playing a bunch of different game modes as their end game progression model instead of pigeonholing/specializing. I have the most fun in this game when i'm not chasing a particular carrot on a stick from one of the game modes and i feel like the breadth of content - all the different PVP modes, all the different metas and all the different PVE modes (DRMs, Dungeons, Fractals, Strikes, Raids) leave a lot of room for switching it up and not being bored, but for some reason, the devs love to pigeonhole us into FotM game modes forever.

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > Tbh botting in WoW is actually more effective than coordinated players, for this reason, no 5v5 versions are something I support. It's only a matter of time before someone with a brain gets good at 5 bot super coordinated burns that a normal human can't react to.

> >

> > I think we should get 3v3 versions of conquest and/or stronghold.

>

> I love 3v3 TDM but there's no way the maps of those other two game modes would work in a 3v3 environment at all. You'd need to reduce capture points in conquest from 3 to 2, and remove a lot of the filler in Stronghold. Not worth the hassle when you can create new game modes instead.

The reason I want to see 3v3 conquest is so there's a cost to coordinated ganging up (potential loss due to lost points), I feel like ganging up is one of the things that makes bots more powerful (in addition to faster reflexes with programs running at ghz now), at least in the WoW videos, the 1:1 of cap points to players is very intentional. I know people like the whole "capper" role in their conquest but I think in order to discourage high-end botting it needs to go away.

Awesome! This is exciting!

Title, basically. The stat swapping recipes in wiki are not that helpful as I don't think it's been updated. Also, is this limited time for acquisition? It is only purchasable with the Deldrimor marks.

It respawns you RIGHT on the portal and asks every time if you want to leave, just had all my progress nuked because of an accidental click.

Crafting is one of the best ways to convert gold & or mats to ascended gear. Also some of the Insignias and inscriptions are account bound, so using the MF stat swap recipe is a must if you want to convert some ascended gear to something useful. There's also niche cases where crafting can make you money. As others have said, you can avoid crafting, there are alternate means of earning that armor etc, but I've had quite a few ascended armor box drops lately and it's come in handy.

> @"Hypnowulf.7403" said:

> I like it. The end of LWS4 and The Icebrood Saga was what drew me back in. It was the writing, generally. I mean, for the first time in the game's history they've been trying to write something different and I find it very compelling. The story is quite unlike... If I'm honest, it's unlike anything in video games right now, not even just the mainstream. It feels abstract, strange, and unusual. It has a certain dream-like quality to it with how fantastic it can be, whilst also having a certain soulful depth. It's difficult to articulate precisely what's so enthralling to me—beyond just Jormag, because it's no secret how much I adore that ice dragon—but... It speaks to me. This is the most "hype" I've been about Guild Wars 2 in a long, long time.

>

> Fantasy always retreads the same bloody stories, over and over. There are only a few subsets of fantasy tropes, if I were being cynical I could narrow it down to three and say that if you've read one? You've read them all. They all follow the same basic narrative path. Sci-Fi has the same problem if I'm being true to myself—simians in sardine cans, and the sardine cans have windows! Transparent materials are heavy! I mean, in an advanced setting, you'd expect morphological freedom and for everyone to have gone completely off the rails. Frankly, by the time we start to colonise I... strongly suspect that due to growing ecological concerns, we'll have shed our bodies in preference of living in virtualised spaces that can house many more people with a smaller footprint.

>

> Where was I? Oh yes. Fantasy tends to be very... predictable. It grants the average mind the same plot points every time. It's a world of horrors where everyone is a psychopath, oh the political intrigue; It's a hero's journey through an untamed owrld of magic; et cetera. Guild Wars 2 is the only setting I've seen in a long time that dares to be a little less... predicable, that has the courage to tell a story outside of the usual comfort zones, something a little more risky. I appreciate it.

>

> I'm not even certain if the finer nuances have been picked up on by a lot of players. I enjoy it, though. Who really invaded the Vigil Keep, was it actually Jormag? Why trust the spirits when they eat children? Drakkar actually is a baby and we haven't really given them a chance, so why is the Commander so desperate to murder them. Why is the Claw of Jormag so deathly afraid of the United Legions? I get the feeling he's only there since he's worried that a gaggle of abominations are about to slaughter his mother.

>

> It's an interesting play on perspective. Certainly, we might be the hero—yet we might also be a murderous tyrant, acting on tribal instinct, one who doesn't bother to logically consider the evidence available to them.

>

> It's a refreshing change of pace as it sidesteps the usual glorified human sanctity that so many fantasy settings direly need to move away from. I mean, we're not narcissistic sociopaths, we don't need to be told how fantastic our species is every few minutes. A sin that the original Guild Wars was also all too guilty of. There are many things GW2 does that I find very refreshing.

>

> So I disagree. I'm very "hype." I have all of the positive energy. Even if their resources are limited as they develop an expansion, this is the most interested I've been in a fantasy book, film, or video game in some time.

>

> The last time I was this pleased was when a man yelled the names of various sciences at a demonic entity to defeat him.

I really like the Living world too, but I feel like it's obvious from Google trends and other things that it fails to garner the attention of most players. Doing the requiem quest chain in Jahai bluffs was one of the most beautiful quest experiences I've ever had in an MMO: it featured a lot of hatred, eventual character development and reconciliation. The IB story is great imo. I was not expecting that one charr general to go awol and Rytlock to permanently lose his son over it. The story is really good imo as well. but I feel like looking at the data, there's something missing.

> @"SaskiaElite.8132" said:

> Hi, I know there is like many videos on youtube resource about this, but I do want to hear your ways, methods and how you spend your time in GW2 about farming gold in base game, are you doing anything specific? are you doing stuff only in two expansions or you can also farm gold or silver in base game too? I'm looking for stuff or methods that I may be have missed or dont know about yet, and youtube videos explains only so much, so perhaps can you give me tips and tricks?

>

> I bookmarked gw2wiki onto my browser and constantly looking things, especially mats. There is also other thing I want to learn since long time, gw2 wiki shows certain materials drops from mobs in certain regions on the map, however, I must be max level to get certain mats? dropped from mobs? or its all random independent from level? Because my level 70 thief barely gets any red blood material from 70 island on map. And I mean ANY red blood material, its like almost mobs dropping junk, distance between drop rate is too long, or I'm doing something wrong?

>

> Thank you in advance and hopefully someone can shed a light about this last question I asked, I don't know much about game systems,

For base game, your best bets for raw gold are probably fractals (they're included, right?), you might have issues finding groups as core at higher levels. Pay close attention to map bonus rewards, shiny baubles are 30-50s a pop, and you'll want to farm T6 mats and anything that gives rares. If strikes are a possibility for core players, then shiverpeaks daily is an extra 75s/day.

Doing ley-line anomaly is worth 2-3g if you sell the mystic coin (you get a 50s shiny bauble + MC and some random items, usually a rare and a gilded strongbox). Also, not having mounts will make you less adept at this event. but it won't matter given its current popularity.

Mixing and matching the dailies across game modes is 2g. Alot of them are easy once you understand them. ANd the WvW and PVP ones are never expansion specific.

Also, Triple Trouble: if you can find time slots that you're usually on and a guild is organizing, that's an extra 2g/run and a chance at ascended armor and it gives tons of loot.

You should try to get the auto-loot mastery ASAP, it picks up from so far away, you're losing money not having it. It needs to be enabled in settings but is worth it.