Tic Tac Toe.1482

The first link today on the news page, March Sales Begin at the Black Lion Trading Company, is giving me a 404 page not found.

Does anyone have a good/optimum build for this? It seems like high power dps and high mobility are best but anything specific?

Many things from PvE and some pvp and wvw, maybe:

-PvE

Complete story, including LW and xpacs

Map complete

All Raids, fractals, strike missions, dragon response missions, and dungeons done

All mastery levels and mounts unlocked

One legendary weapon, trinket, armour, and rune or sigil bound

30k or some other AP requirement?

PvP

Rank 60? 80?

WvW

Rank 1500? 2000?

Is it better/more profitable to salvage a stack of ecto with a Silver-Fed or Runecrafter salvage kit? I don't have max magic find so I want more, but also want to sell the dust for max profit as well.

(I searched some of the older salvage optimizing threads but couldn't find a specific answer)

While we'd all like DirectX 12 for GW2, one of the big techs coming down the pipe is Nvidia's RTX IO, which is basically Nvidia's implementation of Microsoft DirectStorage - aka using NVME SSD's to quickly get stuff from disk into video memory, which supposedly will cut loading times from tens of seconds or minutes to ~ 1 second. AMD/ATI is also working on their implementation of Microsoft DirectStorage.

I'd like to see the devs implement this in GW2 - it shouldn't be as big of an overhaul as replacing the entire rendering engine, just adding some code for the API to pull game assets from the SSD into video memory directly, always easier said than done, but it seems one of those "good bang for the buck" things. This would noticeably speed up map loading and even help with in speedy in-game travel, when your gfx settings are turned up, you've just entered a map, and are flying around on a griffon or roller beetle.

Anyone else see this as a good thing for the game?

Yes, most people would want a full redo. And a new PC to run it all!

While that's not realistic, a few optimizations for performance, the main rendering thread, and multi core CPUs wouldn't hurt, it's a lot easier (and less expensive) said than done.

I have 9 toons, one for each profession, and I mostly match them to "personality" of the toon or the time.

My reaper necro, dressed in black reaper hood and garb is "The inevitable"

My falcon (human cultural skin) ranger with hawk wings glider is "Ruler of the Skies"

For Halloween, my lab-thief is "Emissary of the Mad King"

I'll sometimes switch it up, for instance on my elementalist, I switched to "Dedicated" at the eight year mark, or I might try "Emissary of Cantha" or what ever it's called if that's a thing when we can pre-order EoD :-)

They need to nerf him big time. I want to farm w/low DPS gear, if we went in w/full zerk + cc builds we could melt him (break his bones into powder?) but that's not why or how we farm lab. It's just annoying. Maybe a lab version with no bosses!

I would like a legendary under water breather, and I also think in this case the one legendary should work on any weight (light, medium, heavy).

If they make a mode like that, I'd like them to make a "no Steve or other bosses mode" so that people who like to speed run the lab can do so, without any bosses. Maybe instead of boss doors/areas, they can make them mob doors/areas instead. Moar lootz! :-)

Yes, wow it looks crazy. Tried it on several browers (firefox, chrome) and machines (phone, tablet, desktop), and the site is all garbled.

Being it's 2020, I wouldn't mind an early Halloween festival, so long as it doesn't end early.

What is the gold star to the left of a characters Mastery Point Level from (not the map complete star to the right)?

Thanks :-)

To go with the upcoming Legendary Template (if there is still room and time in the development of this), my suggestion for a legendary infusion, and also a way to address the ever increasing "visual clutter":

1. The legendary infusion has the ability to stat swap AR, WvW bonus, and +stat bonuses

2. The legendary infusion is able to go in to and out of any ascended or legendary item with out an extraction device

3. A separation between a visual effect and an items ability, via a "visual effect slot" in that could be slotted into a legendary infusion or possibly legendary item. The idea is to be able to have any "unlocked effect" your account currently has from infusions (and via the current legendary trinkets like vision or the new karma enrichment item for the 8th anniversary), combined with any stats/bonuses you want on your character via infusions, or removed all together.

4. The ability for you as a player to enable to disable these effects from your own character and other characters via the graphic settings.

Thoughts?

I'm noticing this too, though it's only certain parts for me. The TP, a few parts of the mini-map, and some of the food and utility effect icons. It's not too distracting but it is noticeable.

Yes with condensing scrolls! My shared slots have 3 LS season tomes, the DR scroll, PoF scroll, the world boss device, and the PoF star that gets you to vabbi in PoF, and will soon have the combined festival invitation/life of the party thing.

And I don't have the wvw one, airship scroll, HoT device, fractal/mist scroll, ember bay scroll, or any of the racial city scrolls. Plus they'll likely be future ones for cantha and future LS...

Could we put all of that into one mega-tome?

I'm hoping they'll just add a "disable effects" option for each item.

Never get BLC keys thinking you'll get something specific or for a good key to gold profit. Though it may not be legally gambling (law changes slower than tech) it's the same mentality - YOU could win big. It should be you COULD win big. For every permanent access scroll or cool skin there's a zillion duds.

That said if you enjoy the chance and want to support the game you enjoy playing, absolutely get some keys! You may be pleasantly surprised every once in a while.

Like many here I oppose a subscription fee for the reasons already stated.

For the OP's stated benefits, unlimited storage and build templates, if Anet implemented that and I gathered lots of mats and put lots of good gear into many templates, would I lose access to that if I don't pay the fee for a month? So this proposal would essentially paywall your stuff, at least the stuff in the templates and mat storage past what you normally have?

No thanks.

I remember when monthlies were a thing. Weeklies, monthlies, bring 'em all in!

I for one would like something (a raid, fractal, strike mission) done within the wizards tower.

It's a cool area and a natural to fill out, even if the life is not part of the main story.

I would like the various portal books and travel scrolls combined into a travel "mega binder".

Maybe in the future there'll be more going on there, but for now that area is a little dead.

Something that combines the season 3-5 books of portals (hopefully there's one for season 5), and all the other travel scrolls/doodads? Maybe a cool quest to go with it? Or even a gemstore QoL item?

I know it's been asked before, but with LS5 around the corner, it seems like a good time to bring it up...

Are 3 heat stones needed per character, or per account?