Deimos.4263

> @"maxwelgm.4315" said:

> Their very first decision of NOT having fundamental NPCs inside the Guild Hall (standard merchants, at least a TP and PERSONAL bank) shows how much they actually wanted to not put guilds and guild halls into any kind of spotlight.

In case you weren't aware, you can access your personal bank from the scribing station. No TP though. :(

> @"Aneysa.3845" said:

> Some pics from the NA Pride march. It was amazing!!!

> https://www.dropbox.com/s/q8biooeong0og0n/gw046.jpg?dl=0

> https://www.dropbox.com/s/ek378dcp1ihlltt/gw057.jpg?dl=0

> https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwtp19b5bwuojic/gw073.jpg?dl=0

That's me on the left with the bell in the second pic! (Danialle/Lernova). The parade needed tunes.

> @"Lord Krilik.3692" said:

> People aren't engaging it, but you are raising a valid point within this. Why is the matchmaking placing you against the same enemy team on repeat when they are outplaying you? Shouldn't it mix you up with them a bit or pit you against different players? I can only assume that you are doing a good job but your team members are new every match (i.e. people you haven't played alongside yet) and being balanced against the enemy, only to wind up being worse players than them, and you really are just unlucky.

Yeah that sucks. I don't want to play against the same 5 people if I just lost to them, or with the same 4 people if I just lost with them. They won, it sucks, my randomly assigned team of sore losers is raging/blocking each other, let's move on. Is the pvp population really that low now?

This is just going to lead to anybody legitimately using supply for defense being labelled as a "troll". I'd say guilds that claim objectives but never maintain/defend/upgrade them at all are worse.

> @"chrisjfinlay.5614" said:

> Not that I'm complaining as I got one from a BLC last night and sold it...

>

> However, I don't understand quite why it goes for ~840G sell instantly, with other sellers looking for 1000+G. Even if you went back to Lion's Arch once a day to pick up all your items and gold from the TP, it's about 3-4s each way. Rounding that up to 10s round trip for the ease of working this out (which is way higher than it actually costs, it's closer to 6-7s), that's 8400-10000 round trips before the item pays for itself! And considering there's usually somewhere close to where you are that's got a trading post and is cheaper to get to...

>

> It just strikes me as odd, is all.

It is extremely helpful if you're scribing something big, and just need a few things off the TP. Otherwise, you need to leave the guild hall, go find a TP person, return to the guild hall, remember you forgot something for the next scribing step, repeat.

> @"Steve The Cynic.3217" said:

> OK, with the fixed random-fractal crash, I can get to the queens. I debugged the stuck conversation there, and activated the portal to the next step, with Blish's arm gone through and all, and when I try to go through, I get bounced to Lion's Arch instead. No crash, but no Kourna either. So Cleopatra Aegyptus is in Kourna but Cleopatra Aegyptus cannot go to Kourna.

>

> (Um. One of them is in GW1, and the other is in GW2, obviously.)

Geez. If you're getting bounced all the way back to GW1, Joko is stronger than we feared.

Yep. It's not the amount of stuff in the chest, or the rarity or value of it. But it should be somehow interesting. Exciting. Not ordinary. That's what you want in an RNG chest. Something cool.

> @"AliamRationem.5172" said:

> What other explanation is there for what you see? I mean, everyone else is playing under the same rules. How can it possibly be that bad matchmaking effects only you and others who feel they are well below their deserved rating over a span of hundreds of games? Does that seem in any way plausible when you think on it?

The point is it's bad-matchmaking, period. I'ts not measuring player skill very well at all, it's more or less random. But people will continue to defend it regardless, as they do with pretty much anything.

So our skill level wanders around season to season, and the algorithm is perfectly fine? A much simpler explanation: it doesn't really work in 5v5 competitive play with random teams, and ends up measuring things that have nothing to do with the player.

> @"SlippyCheeze.5483" said:

> You know that confidence isn't a one-way ratchet system, right? Like, if you are expected to win all the time, and keep losing, confidence will go back down.

And yet that doesn't actually seem to happen. Seasons after season, it makes up it's mind *somewhere* and can't be convinced.

> @"SlippyCheeze.5483" said:

> In that case you should take comfort in knowing that there is only a 4/9 chance of playing with them, and a 5/9 chance of playing against them, so in the long run they will artificially raise your MMR, not lower it.

Unfortunately the algorithm "gains confidence" too rapidly, so if you get a string of bad games early on you're kinda hosed. You burn through the opportunity to climb fast, and then you're essentially pigeon-holed at whatever rating it has decided you belong. Probably the best thing you can do is not play the first week or two, and let the majority of the crazies fizzle out, so that the algorithm has a better chance to rate your skill and not other things.

Nerf: Stealth, Visual noise.

Main: Guardian. Maybe just give us true sight so we can actually see what we're fighting.

Goldy hands down. Great understanding of texture and dye selection, no visually distracting "background". The real deal.

I'd be happy if my teammates actually had ratings. One game late last season (I had played about 150 matches), did not go well and the ranting and raving commenced. It came out that two of our teammates were not yet even finished placement -- they had played three games. I guess in that case rating is based on the previous season but that seems...wrong.

I think you did ok, and keep playing your build if you enjoy it. Looks like your team won a close match. What else matters?

The people who like this change are playing the builds that need nerfs. Bring back defensive play.

I'm about as filthy a casual as it gets but I've never understood the hangup some people have with Gifts of Battle. I don't think they're *difficult* to acquire, so much as *annoying*. Should there be another way to get a Gift of Battle? Probably. This game is all about playing how you want to play, after all.

Wait so we're not getting paid?!? Not even in cookies?

Meh. I'm sure they still have some cool ideas, but we're sort of hitting diminishing returns on both types of skin. Once you've got a handful you like, it's just collecting for the sake of collecting.

Rainbow Cake is Account Bound. Don't even think about sharing it.

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> As to this: "_to be able to cross-dress in game too and feel more feminine if you are male or more masculine if you are female._"

> One could just create the opposite-gender character to fulfill that desire, it seems.

Many trans and gender-fluid people do precisely this and are quite happy that we can. It's so much easier than dealing with these things in real life!

Personally I'd be more worried about mean-spirited people trolling or making light of a cross-dressing option, if it were available. Wanting specifically to cross-dress, and emphasize that gender disparity _when the option to have the (flawless) virtual body of your choice is also available_, seems to be a relatively rare desire.

But good on the OP for bringing it up. Much love and support, if this is something you truly want.

I love this commoonity.

> @"Icemanfrost.5428" said:

> Why can't I play in the game, why can't everything be in the game? Why do I need to sign up to discord to listen to them talk and heavy breathing? I just want to play the game.

I sympathize with you completely, but everything you need to play the game is in the game. Discord is simply a popular external tool. Many guilds/groups manage just fine without it. Many individuals have valid reasons for not wanting to use it. Your issue is with your group's preferences, and if they aren't sympathetic to your concerns/needs you should look for another one. It's up to you.

My main guild uses Discord extensively, and the core members do enjoy it. But it's not a requirement. Is it frustrating sometimes, when one member of the guild isn't in voice during guild missions? Yes. But we suck it up and help that one person, even if I have to type everything out each week. And we keep inviting them to Discord, but if they can't or won't, that's fine.

> @"Nath Forge Tempete.1645" said:

> Hey there !

>

> I wonder... Is Arena Net fine with that increasing amount of toxicity in sPVP now ? Even when season was off ppl were insanely toxic. Flaming , insulting others just cause they die or else.

>

> Most of the time I just report -> verbal abuse but does this even matter? I'm asking to you Anet. Do you allow this kind of behavior? Is there something that's in place to penalize toxic players?

I don't think the toxicity is a result of poor matchmaking (whether or not matchmaking actually is poor is a matter for debate). It's the result of poor sportmanship; people seem to think it's ok to completely cuss out their own team over the smallest errors, or more often than not to cover for their own inadequacies. It really doesn't matter if you're playing well or not, you shouldn't be subjected to verbal abuse. While ANet does provide a button for reporting that, it doesn't seem to actually do anything useful.

I'd like to see Anet apply a swear-jar policy to /team chat. Maybe 5-10 rank points per offense should do the trick; those that can't control their emotions will find themselves buried in Bronze.

I'm just limping my way towards a piece of legendary armor and calling it quits at this point. (I'm somewhere between 1350 and 1550, we'll see where it ends up). I don't really care about the builds, etc. but the game is suffering from an extreme lack of sportsmanship. Even when we win by a huge margin, someone is cussing someone else out on our own team, in the most vulgar way possible, because everyone has an over-inflated ego. It makes the mode not fun to play, and even competitive modes need to be fun. (I'm fairly sure some of these people pick fights on purpose to ensure a loss.)