Dino.3680

Resistance is futile.

I have not personally been targeted for random guild invites, but i have been randomly invited to parties and squads while not being at ALL interested in joining. And yes, it is not much work to decline manually, but why should i have to in the first place?

i actually agree with OP alot. The only reason i have sunken almost 11K hours into this game is because this is where my friends are. I have 1 friend FFXIV, One playing WoW, One that used to play ESO and one that used to play SWTOR. SO myself i have stopped playing SWTOR, WOW and mostly ESO. But i do play FFXIV still. But i always return to spend more hours in GW2. Not because of the story. GW2 story is only mediocre while FFXIV story is a work of art. The progression scheme in ffxiv is existant but slow paced enough that as a casual i can still keep pace. The reason i return to GW2 all the time and MAKE reasons why i "need" a new legendary is to have something to do in a game my friends are.Had a few more friends started actively playing any of the other mentioned MMO's i would probably be gone from gw2 forever.

There is a ton of stuff that cannot be bought with gold that you can get from FotM.Also, what is the point of "playing" a game if you just buy everything with real money? Nothing to play for then.

To some of the issues that surfaced in this thread: YES there are more builds than meta builds that are viable for raids, it is the overall composition that must meet a certain criteria. However meta setups are meta for a reason they are, if everyone plays them perfectly, the BEST composition of builds that can take that encounter that they know of(They as in the people managing the meta sites for the respective mode). If everyone is not playing them good enough then there might be a different composition that works better for your group.For example for my usual raiding group we use 3 healers on Mattias to have enough heals and CC so the DPS can be pure DPS. We could modify our build but we use those exact build on other encounters and it is easier for us to swap one dps for a healer, than for every dps to swap to a more survivable and cc oriented version. When it comes to DPS count, it is the average dps for all participants that needs to be high enough, if someone is playing a role that does less dps then someone else must do more dps to compensate to have enough to complete the encounter. That dps is not very high, but due to certain mechanics such as Dhuums last 10% that must be a certain average. Also, the benched dps on a golem is not the same as a actual DPS during the fight.For example i play dragonhunter in some raids, when i was at my best i managed to get just above 28K on the kitty golem with key boons and buffs on. However during actual raid due to mechanics, boss being away and not all boons and effects being permanent i was only at approximately 12K dps average for the entire fights.One of the reasons some play roles that have lower DPS is to play support roles to give boons. and maintaining good enough up-time of key boons alone is not easy and not viable for many classes. So someone (usually 2 to 3) goes boon support, often one or two of these also heals, meaning they do very little damage. That needs to be compensated for by the other participants. Now, while there is not a high amount of DPS each other has to increase in order to compensate for that loss, the fights are not static, they have certain mechanics that artificially increase that requirement. Such as Dhuum which at 10% HP (3 200 000) resets the timer to 1 minute 45 second, becomes immune and engages all the players that are still alive (preferably all) in a mini-game where they are sent out of their bodies and need to gather 5 orbs to return to their bodies. They have a time-limit of 30 seconds to do that or that player dies. when they have returned to their bodies dhuum is still invulnerable the players need to coordinate to go out into a high damage zone to interact with some seals to make in vulnerable for 20 seconds before he goes invulnerable again and the seals need to be interacted with again. META dps builds here have a higher requirement for survival than a non-meta build that has a little bit of survivability built in. +1 point for off-meta dps builds. Math time: The timer starts and Dhuum becomes invulnerable approximately 5 seconds later the animation for turning the player into spirits are done and 15 seconds in total for all players to get the orbs is normal. So 20 seconds done already. There are now only 1:25 remaining. Then when enough players are normal they need to coordinate to activate the 7 seals. 3 seconds of running each way with swiftness (cannot count blink/shadow step here since that would require all 7 to play that and then it is back to the meta problem) + 5 seconds activation time for the seal. So assuming all 7 mange to start running out immediately and at the same time. 3 second sprint 5 second activation. another 8 seconds off. 1:17 remaining, dhuum is now vulnerable and 7 of the players are not at him yet. so another 3 seconds until all players are there. for the sake of math lets say all have 5k dps flat out all the time no matter what. With 5k dps each that amounts to 15K dps for the first 3 seconds then 50K dps for group for 17 seconds = 895K damage in those 20 seconds. 57 seconds remaining, then there is another lap of seals 8 second then damage phase again. 49 seconds remaining when dps starts so first 15K DPS for 3 seconds then 50K DPS for 17 seconds again is a new 895K damage taken. he now has 1 410 000 hp remaining with 29 seconds on the timer. 8 second sprint 20 second dps = 1 second left and 515 K HP. By these numbers there doesn't have to be A LOT of higher DPS per player to mange to get the kill. Assuming all players mange the timing correctly. Given the time to run back after the seal and the timer there are 3 dps round of 20 second for 3 players and 3 dps round of 17 seconds for 7 players giving an effective 537 dps seconds. with that number there needs to be a average dps of 5960 per player. Not very much. However consider then that some roles only does 1-3K dps, the other need to account for that loss. So if you want to join a group that has 2 roles that does ~2k dps and 2 roles that does ~4k DPS, assuming these 4 are among the ones running to the seal the dps that the DPS's need to have on average then to compensate for the loss off the supports are 7 772 (close to 7.8K dps).So then to be a help to that group you have to have at least that amount of DPS otherwise you are not pulling your weight and some other DPS have to compensate for that loss. AKA you are being carried. These numbers are not high when checked on a kitty golem. But they can be daunting to get in a real fight with many builds especially considering the time it to build up boons and such again. Dhuum was just one example. But throughout the raids (not counting CM) a group average of 8K DPS can kill any boss if no player dies. (Raid dps not kitty dps) if someone dies than that needs to be compensated for. However due to the nature of pugs.A. Many people do not know what is actually required in order to make a kill and thinks that meta is the only viable option (high toixicity either by ignorance or misinformation).B. The reason for the meta builds/composition is for groups that know that they are all good enough to do it to be able to do it as fast as possible. Some find it enjoyable to push their own records there, but personally i mean that belongs in a static, not a pug.C. They want meta DPS's to be able to compensate for 1, 2 or ever 3 people that die at some point during the raid since they do not know the skilllevel of the persons joining the group. So, if you do not have a meta build, but you know that you can full fill your role, (preferably some extra since some may die) you should be good to go. Either explain to the group the situation, or lie(not preferable, and difficult if they ask for a specific class/elite spec that you aren't playing). If they do not accept you even after you showed insight and humility enough to say you do not play meta but can hold your weight then they are toxic. Regardless of which approach you take if you do not pull your weight in the raid then you are being a toxic player, even if not flaming because you do not full fill the role you signed up to full fill. If you on top of that lied about what you were playing you are even more toxic.Some might employ dps meters during a fight and if it wipes ones and they see a dps not having enough dps and kick him they are toxic no matter what build that dps was playing, IF that dps was not pulling his own weight aka he had lower than the average dps needed from the dps roles to complete that raid he was also toxic. But if the dps was high enough to complete just not high enough for the commanders "i want only the best standards" then the commander is VERY toxic.I am not absolutely sure about this in GW2 but i do believe that using a dps meter to exclude players is against ToS. In most MMO's that is the case and i believe it is so in GW2 also. It is a lot more ways to be toxic than not to be toxic when it comes to raids(and fractals).I have been kicked for not being meta, i have been kicked for not pulling my weight, i have been carried, i have been taught since they noticed me not pulling my weight, i have gotten tips for optimising my play when they noticed me not doing optimally. I have also kicked players for not pulling their weight, i have carried players, i have helped players. One thing i personally have not done is kick for not being meta. but i have kicked someone for joining as a different ROLE all together. (no they didn't just join on one then planned to swap character)I can say first hand it is A LOT easier to choose the toxic route especially on the first 2 days after reset in prime time as the slots gets filled FAST. But it is never right to be the toxic one. But if the build they ask for does something more than JUST pure DPS, there might be a reason why they want that build. So if that is the case and the joiner cannot full fill that side role, then yes it is right of him not to be able to join if none of the others can compensate, but he should then be told why not just get a "Go meta kick". Example is druid pusher on Keep Construct. its role is to heal, boon a little and manage a very specific mechanic. if none of the other can do that mechanic then it is right for them to not accept the joiner if that also cannot do that mechanic. But be nice about it also to not be toxic. So it boils down to What, How, Why.They don't accept you into the raid group.How do they do that. Screaming, yelling, shaming. Just kicking silently. Explaining that there is a reason.Why do they no accept you. For not being meta, not doing the job you said you'd do, not being able to do a specific mechanic they need of the last one in the group.How they do it is more impacting than why to the level of toxicity but both do play a role, it is very toxic to explain that they cannot join because they need to be meta because nothing below 30K dps is not good enough, even though you did the nice thing of explaining it.And the opposite way, if they have a good reason for not accepting you. I.E. the class/build you play cannot do a mechanic that the one they are looking for is required to do and they explain that then you get angry at them then you are being toxic for not accepting that you would not be able to play in that group. There would still be a lot of LFG's for groups that want highly optimised builds to clear it as fast as possible, and there would be many players to fill those slots, but for those that do not have that there would also be a lot of LFG's that only require you to do enough so that those that do not play optimised builds would still be able to find groups pretty fast.

The dialogue at the start of the episode has a echo to it making it sound like i am standing far away inside a cave listening to other people talk. It is also very low in volume.I have tried restarting the game but that did not help.

If this is happening, please have it as an option. I want my ui up all the time.

I wish we could individually combine inventory bags so that i could have my inventory look like this.

Have arenanet not paid attention to the state of the masters of RNG RMT?Approximetly 80% of all korean mmo's that die out die out due to the RNG factor on items purchased for real money, since most players don't want (or can't afford) to gamble real money.I wanted 1 skin, but i am not paying up to 12000 gems for it.or 9600 gems straight away to ensure i get it.

Have arenanet not paid attention to the state of the masters of RNG RMT?Approximetly 80% of all korean mmo's that die out die out due to the RNG factor on items purchased for real money, since most players don't want (or can't afford) to gamble real money.I wanted 1 skin, but i am not paying up to 9600 gems for it.