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Ah, the classic Valentine's Day dilemma for singles: delicious dinner specials available for one night only, but at the expense of all the trappings that remind you just how single you are. My favorite local Italian restaurant put me in just such a predicament tonight. Shrimp bisque, crab-stuffed salmon, and chocolate cannoli cake. All specials that aren't normally even on the menu. What to do? I posed that question recently in a calendar thread. When @Mold dropped a brilliant plan: Simply brilliant. Now, mind you, I am not the sort of person that is good at keeping a joke. Once my lip starts curling, I cannot hold back the floodgates of grins and chuckles that immediately follow. Execution here is critical. I'd need to really sell the disappointment of having been stood up without betraying the glee of what was to come. I didn't think I stood a chance! But, what I fear more is a good idea going to waste. No guts, no glory. And so, I executed what will forever be known as The Mold Maneuver. Before: After: I think the extra glass of wine really sold the moment and earned me that sympathetic pat on the shoulder from the waitress as I departed. Somehow, I held back the tears (of joy)! Mold, you're a genius.

Here's my POV

https://www.twitch.tv/nextlevelstrats/v/115313875

https://www.twitch.tv/nextlevelstrats/v/115312912

https://www.twitch.tv/nextlevelstrats/v/111737761

Dear Cobras, Rather quietly earlier this week, the guild went through probably its biggest change since its very inception. @Bone and @Mold, who first formed NPC some 3 years ago, have decided to step down as guild leaders and pass the torch. Don't worry. They have assured me they are not quitting the game. They'll still check in with us from time to time. But, as they've slowly reduced their playing time, it was important for them to entrust the guild to someone else. And, that someone turned out to be me. I already had the chance to do so personally, but I hope all of you join me in sincerely thanking both Bone and Mold. It's easy to take for granted the time and energy that's spent behind the scenes. They have each invested so much into making this guild what it is today. It's something I treasure dearly. So, my bags are extra heavy these days, carrying a little extra responsibility and quite a bit of feels. But, I'm energized by all you. The true heart and soul of this guild. The progress you make in raids (shoutout to @Maia!). The playful banter (and killer puns!) in chat and TeamSpeak. The generosity of your hard earned resources for each other. The volunteer spirit to fill out a late night fractal or help with an achievement. The shared pride in completing a long term project and pinning it for all to see. I'm sure there are concerns with any leadership change. But, really, I hope there is as little change as possible. I see myself more as a caretaker than anything else. NPC will always be your guild as much as it is mine. So, it's important to me that every voice is heard. Nothing will ever be off the table. I'd like to also take this moment to introduce @Fred T W as our new second-in-command. Congrats, and thank you for taking on that role, buddy. With that, the floor is yours! We can use this space for anything you like. From parting wishes to airing of grievances. And, if you feel like approaching me directly, my door is always open. I even cleaned out a few extra in-game mail slots! I welcome your thoughts through any format: the website, in game, or directly by email: spltscreen@gmail.com. Thanks for your attention. -- Ser

Cloudy day today but tomorrow will be great to keep conquering the seas. See you next Monday. Cheers!

Just trying to set up a guide with helpful information about collecting the gold fractal weapon skins If you're going for the collection from a low number of weapons and buying everything - without continually running fractals, giving the chance of drops - the probability of an unacquired skin might favor the "random" mystic forge recipe. (I think Bone brought this up one time) The recipe is significantly cheaper than the "specific" one; https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gold_Fractal_weapons shows the required items. I don't have an estimate for this, but there are likely some out there. Other than that, there are 2 different acquisition methods for specific gold fractal weapons: The mystic forge recipe, requiring a regular fractal weapon skin or crate + 10 golden fractal relics + 100 globs of ectoplasm + 50 stabilizing matrices From the BLING-9009 merchant for 10 golden fractal relics + 20 integrated fractal matrices Pertaining to this, I've calculated the costs of the variable materials in terms of fractal currency and cash value - though there are other factors to consider. 1. For reference, the current price of the globs of ectoplasm + stabilizing matrices would be ~50.6 gold to buy instantly. A fractal weapon crate can be bought from BUY-2046 PFR for 20 pristine fractal relics, or you can use any chests/weapon skins that you may already have. 2. The 20 integrated fractal matrices come out to be 200 stabilizing matrices to purchase, currently amounting to ~69.7 gold to buy instantly. They would also require 300 fractal relics - equivalent to trading in 20 pristine fractal relics. Based on these calculations, I would generally recommend the mystic forge recipe to pursue the collection. Some of the "other factors" include availability to pristine fractal relics in comparison to regular fractal relics, which would affect this particular choice, previously acquired regular fractal weapon skins/crates from drops and achievements, which would further favor this choice, and previously acquired integrated fractal matrices from scale 100 challenge mode. The integrated fractal matrices from the daily 100 CM awards can tip the cost in favor of purchasing from BLING-9009, though there are other uses of them - stat cap and infinite potions, for example. This collection is one of the larger projects out there, but I don't think it's as intimidating as I was thinking, so hopefully this guide helps put it into perspective for anyone interested.

So I was researching the blue square patterns and they are not random. I charted out mine to clarify the pattern for myself and thought I'd share it. I'm not sure if the overall pattern is random or not (meaning I had the pattern labeled "1" first, but someone else might have "3" or "7" first). I think we've already figured this out, but you've always got a blue in one of the 4 middle squares. I've been putting this info together with more videos but haven't come to any conclusions yet. I have a few strategies I like and will post when I've collected more "data." Interesting things to note: Only one blue square appears in any column or row at a time. Only 4 patterns exist. Similar to the middle, you will always have one blue available to you on one of the three squares adjacent to each corner or the corner square itself. (So, if we have to go to the corner at the end because of low dps we can still make our blues. As long as they don't line up perfectly with the spikes, which is the case in the middle anyways.) My first pattern looked like this: Over the course of the entire fight it ended up looking like this:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/121989507

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/120751622

My estimated total chart score before bonus categories (use the scoring system in the post below): 124 My entries for bonus categories: Racial columns completed with appropriate race? Asura Y | Charr Y | Norn Y | Sylvari Y Redundant: Shiniestar Oxymoronic: Stiff as Wood Thematic name on the wrong class/race: Destitute Warrior (ranger) Name that covers the most tiles in your card: Lunarjade; # of tiles it covers: 3 Most diacritics: Ï Dönt Nëëd Frïënds (screenshot encouraged); # of diacritics 6 My entries for specialty-prize categories (screenshots encouraged, preferably in a gallery, linked in your bingo card) Grossest: Pooponmyhamster Trying-too-hardest: The Son of Krypton Best/Worst Pun: Kleppto The Maniac Most Illegible: Blehbluhaa PvP-est: Deathly Bad Dps/Doing the Least (i couldnt pick ) http://s1224.photobucket.com/user/KittyKats21/BN WN BINGO/story ASURA CHARR NORN SYLVARI Vocation (but not gw2 profession) Asurabin Leprechaun Darkness themed Dead Echos Cat Sounds His Meowjesty Of the Mists __________ Contains “hild” or “lind” Borghildr Dolorosa Ranger or Thief who’s speedy Ladane Swiftwing Roots or Branches Twigz Barkley Technology Biotechnician Bouh Celestial Bodies Lunarjade Blades Viktor Darkblade Format: <adjective> <noun> Killer Army Weather related Freya Snowborne Respelling of famous NPC Ends in “wen” or “when” Aelowen Smallness Roundy Da Smally Time of day Everlasting Dawn Horns Harry Hugehorn Lone, capital “X” (one or more) X Southern Light X Ends in “dottir” or “son” Freyja Hrafnsdottir Boons, conditions, or skills Veil Fur Multiple plant terms Twigz Barkley Contains “xx” or “Kk” Xxykx Seasonal S A N T A B A B Y Claws, Talons, & Paws Grimjaw Sabertooth N A M E S L I K E T H I S S A N T A B A B Y Born Moll Wolfborn Lore Mixer (non-tyrian lore) Diabloworld Blooms and blossoms Fenria Mysticbloom Starts or ends with “x” Random Namex Name of a gemstone Lunarjade Fur Veil Fur Wordswith nopaces Lunarjade Bigness Mountain of Green Contains “epic” or “legend” Legendary Kraken Thorny Serena Darkthorn Geniuses Priya The Genius Rock themed Vennan Stonehilt Cogs & Gears Ateyo Gearblade Format: <adjective> Was <name> Tormented Was Ossa Contains “The” The Lead Balloon Just a dude (e.g. “Bob Green”) That Guy Stevie 2+ vowel clusters (but not oo, ee, aa, etc) Dia Dreambreaker Alchemy or Synergy Alchemagician Corry Light themed Nightmares Light Flames Ember Trace 3+ diacritics Ï Dönt Nëëd Frïënds Killers, Slayers, & Banes Isrum Wyrmsbane Honorific titles (e.g. Lady, Lord, Emperor) Chaz The Bread Lord Leafy Leaf Stand Salad

So for the request about the alternatives to qT's super stupidly over complicated warrior build. The easiest way to gear a condi PS (please note that I have no information nor do I particularly care to discover the DPS nonsense) is to go full viper's everything, armor, weapons and trinkets, with Aristocracy runes, Malice/Geomancy Sigils and Fried Golden Dumplings/Toxic Focusing Crystals. Link to the build I personally run, just another way of looking at what I explained above. And a Video to show the rotation. The alternative is to run the same, full viper's with aristocracy runes, but instead of running malice and geomancy, you run malice and strength sigils in your weapons and use Rare Veggie Pizzas (or w/e the lentil thingy is)/Toxic focusing crystals. I personally do not like this build as much because the loss of the geomancy sigil hurts your adrenaline generation and makes it even more obnoxious to try and sneak in that last sword primal burst but it is not a terrible loss in dps. Disclaimer: I don't mean to imply that I know better than qT, (despite the clickbait title of course) clearly I don't as you can see in the video above my benchmark was 26,927 DPS which is a little over 2k dps lower than qT's build. While there are definitely some rotational errors on my part, I don't think cleaning those up will get me too much higher than what I've shown in that video. Its not the most min/max'ed build, its not the "best" but I know some people do not like the way qT mixes and matches stat sets and runes to get to the min/max and I talk a lot of shit about it not being truly necessary so I figure its probably a good idea to provide some proof to back up my claims. It is worth noting that I do not run any stat infusions in my gear, I am way to cheap for that so while I included them in the build editor build just for the sake of being thorough I do not actually have them in my gear and that is reflected in the numbers you see in my video.

I also run the viper's/aristocracy/geomancy/malice gear load and concur with Pyro's assessment. The build's damage potential is strong and, I suspect, its might uptime vastly superior to the qT version. While the viperstocracy (new word!) version does slightly less DPS than their nightmare/trapper setup, it also allows for easy gear switching to a full DPS build. By using weapons with geo and malice sigils, condi PS converts to condi DPS warrior simply by slotting in Renegade runes and changing two traits in the Tactics line.

Not to speak for the entire guild, but I'm all for anything that gets stuff out of Ser's bags!

So with the advent Path of Fire bringing the new Specs to live I wanted to bring this up for people to keep in the back of their mind while exploring all the crazy shenanigans the new elite specs and stat types offer. Right now we have a decent spread of variety within the players in the guild and our raid team. We are able to clear the wings with the comp we wish for almost all of the time but there have been quite a few times lately where one or two people can't make a raid night and suddenly that comp that we want to run starts getting very tricky to put together and involves a lot of convoluted swapping in order to reach the desired result. While I for one would love nothing more than to see the new specs replace the HoT specs and give our group a great deal more flexibility, unfortunately if we are being realistic there are quite a few things that will not change. Chronomancers, Warriors, and Druids will almost never be replaced in their entirety, the buffs they give are just too strong to replace them entirely. Also to be considered are the fact that it is entirely likely that the new wings released with Path of Fire will likely require some specialized roles such as hand kiter at deimos or shard kiter at Cairn. I won't sit here and tell people to go out and immediately start gearing things out, but I think it would be wise to start thinking about what classes everyone is able to play and where those classes fall into the three major raid roles, Condi DPS, Power DPS, and Utility. I would like to suggest to everyone to look into what classes you have geared and feel confident in playing, if you can not say that you have at least 1 class from each of those roles perhaps that is what you should look into gearing next for the good of the raid group as a whole. Also things such as hand kiter rev and other specialized builds, as it stands right now Kintari and I are the only ones in the group that I know of who have a set up for that role, meaning that if both of us are out for a night that's a whole boss that might as well be off limits to the group that night. I understand that gearing alts is expensive, and I understand that there are a lot of people who have one or two classes they like to play and have no desire to gear everything else, and that is fine. I won't sit here as much as I want to and tell everyone to go gear a certain number of alts or w/e nonsense but it would mean a lot to the overall success of our group if other people would consider taking up the mantle of some of these roles that we are lacking in so that we are able to comfortably move forward into whatever the Path of Fire raids will bring for us.

From this evening, a lovely ninja of Hills from a hot map.

Last wing finished! Feel free to make any suggestions for placement, or play around with them yourself

Did some looking over our Deimos CM runs. Observations: 1) A lot of greeds are getting to Saul. On our better runs, Saul is hurting pretty badly, and it's a race against Saul's HP bar (until we screw up a mechanic). 2) Greeds making it to Saul are what mysteriously strip Aegis at times: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/170581913?t=02h25m15s. It is difficult to see with the camera angle, but watch Saul's HP drop half a second before the mind crush goes off, and group 1 takes it in the shorts. I think some adjustments to our strategy to more effectively handle greeds and / or avoid the greed explosions are probably in order.

As far as tanking strategies go, The person with the claim button probably needs to decide on that. We may want to consider abandoning our "stay in the middle" strat because the corners are just as "safe" as the middle regarding blues and it would allow us to delay two of the adds longer. I have yet to find a good start that ensures we only encounter one powered up add at a time. That would be the holy grail for us druids (and everyone who likes a fullish health bar). I think Mold mentioned the method used by KING at our last raid. Elaborate drawing of this strat: I've looked at a few videos and I'm partial to the method used by Snow Crows. Three POVs have been posted from that run (see below). Again, I really don't think there is a right or wrong here. The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do. (Why don't we have a pirate emoticon? That would go perfect right here. Please tell me someone else got this reference) Elaborate drawing of this strat:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125316387

OK, we only had a handful of pulls at boss 2 in the new wing. But we learned a lot. I'm confident we'll have it down next time we raid. To help with that, here's a map of the arena and the spikes pattern. The pattern changes at each 25% health threshold. edit: removed incomplete map

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/121519840

For all those interested this is Rigel, the cat many of you have heard me talk about over the last week. He's home safe with a new doo and we're hoping the medication is clearing up the infection. He's super sweet (loves his belly rubbed like a dog) and hopefully has many more years ahead of him.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/117588122

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/117585330

ABOM PHASE!

Very rough draft of NPC BN/WN BINGOOOOOO https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vZiPcL5UNPCxhrrgFj74LYbA6epk8JVKtKqVMhPgmzs/edit?usp=sharing

Sign me up!

Just saw this on Reddit today: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/74o3j0/on_cc_and_pets_an_extensive_look_at/ suggesting the new best CC pet is rock gazelle. I guess it's time I finally suck it up and go get all the new pets. I haven't checked the wiki but someone posted this if anyone else is interested https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/71xv5d/pof_rangers_unite_juvenile_pets_locations/

Hi all. I thought I'd collect the early qT build videos here if anyone is interested. NONE OF THESE ARE FINAL BUILDS. Condi Soulbeast ([LN] version here, they seem similar at 35k. Did someone say there is a 45k version? Anyone have a link?) Staff Weaver Scourge Firebrand with Axe Firebrand with Sc/T Condi Mirage Alacrity Chrono (this goes with a quickness giving Firebrand so it actually does some dps and just alacrity) I also found this condi mirage build from Lucky Noobs (if your into that kind of thing.)

Im in. I should be on by 9 on Tuesday. Druid Heal/Support - I made an asc Minstrels set for this LOL

Transfered over, shiny new gear and ready to bop peeps

Transferred, geared, and ready to check out the wvw scene.

Hi all. This is the next installment in my research on challenge modes. I've been looking onto Samarog and this one is no joke. I'm sure some of you know more about it than me, so please feel free to add to this post or correct anything I've got wrong. New mechanics: Invulnerable spears now appear in a set pattern every 5 seconds. After the entire grid is full, Samarog eats them and the group needs to avoid the red arrows that appear on the ground. Choose your friends wisely: The person who gets the large circle is now immobilized and the person with the small one needs to run to them. A spear spawns where the person with the large circle is standing, so the group needs to be aware not to stand on the large circle. Strategy: I found this lovely map by Derior (I think Mold will be a fan). http://m.imgur.com/gallery/P2N7tmi Druids: Considering the large amount of deadly area, S&R and spirit of nature seem helpful. Because tanking is crucial, we may want to assign people to take aggro (by standing furthest away from the boss as cc phase finishes). The tank should also make sure the swipe attack won't kill the person immobilized by the friends mechanic. A possible strategy is to have the tank move to the next position without the group and have the group follow after. Videos: Video from KING that goes with this map: I've got a few others. I'll post them ASAP.

I know we have some people (including myself) learning condi PS. I am putting this video out there as a resource. I realize qT has great benchmark videos, but their content can sometimes feel a little inaccessible, plus they often don't explain really important aspects of the rotation. This character has no infusions so you should be able to do this on any newly minted condi PS.

Carmen doesn't sweat things like bad pulls or accidental aggro.

Moving less seems right to me. Here's my working theory of what we'll do. The tiles get re-claimed by any of the adds as they enter, so following this exact pattern is unlikely. Only 50-25 seems tricky to me. We probably want druids entangling the transformed mobs just before the reach our tiles. Bringing condi rangers with entangle might not be a bad idea (maybe even a necro to epi-bomb). Either that, or we take eles and try to aoe them down.

My estimated total chart score before bonus categories (use the scoring system in the post below): 113 My entries for bonus categories: Racial columns completed with appropriate race? Asura N | Charr N | Norn N | Sylvari N Redundant: Spooky Mcspookums Oxymoronic: Immortal Death Tkr Thematic name on the wrong class/race: Obnoxious Pods (human female) Name that covers the most tiles in your card: Machinist Gygaxx # of tiles it covers: 4 Most diacritics: Hößßës (screenshot encouraged); # of diacritics 4 My entries for specialty-prize categories (screenshots encouraged, preferably in a gallery, linked in your bingo card) Grossest: Blood Soap Trying-too-hardest: Lahmia The Vampire (with title The Unclean) Best/Worst Pun: Soiled Planties Most Illegible: Sodenoshirayukii / Eahohahahtingtang (couldn't decide) PvP-est: Just the Pïp Album here: http://imgur.com/a/AfAFg My Bingo Card: ASURA CHARR NORN SYLVARI Vocation (but not gw2 profession) Machinist Gygaxx Darkness themed Shadow of The Nyght Cat Sounds Meowzor Doomclaw Of the Mists Resists The Mists Contains “hild” or “lind” __________ Ranger or Thief who’s speedy Kysah Swiftblade (charr thief) Roots or Branches Wormwood Rootrot Technology Machinist Gygaxx Celestial Bodies Aleera Moon Blades Kysah Swiftblade Format: <adjective> <noun> Itchy Witch Weather related Rain Stormfeather Respelling of famous NPC Tibbles Paw Paw Ends in “wen” or “when” __________ Smallness Pocket Aegis Time of day Shadow of The Nyght Horns __________ Lone, capital “X” (one or more) X Den Den X Ends in “dottir” or “son” Gyda Thorsdottir Boons, conditions, or skills Pocket Aegis Multiple plant terms Wormwood Rootrot Contains “xx” or “Kk” Machinist Gygaxx Seasonal Frostclaw Snowslash Claws, Talons, & Paws Frostclaw Snowslash N A M E S L I K E T H I S R A T A T A T A T A Born Karrn Wolfborn Lore Mixer (non-tyrian lore) Elsa Queen of Snow Blooms and blossoms Wildrosebud Starts or ends with “x” Machinist Gygaxx Name of a gemstone Fire Opal Fur Veros Bloodfur Wordswith nopaces Mycharnamewastaken Bigness Humble Giant Contains “epic” or “legend” Legendary Defender Thorny Rotthorn Geniuses __________ Rock themed Candyrockz Cogs & Gears __________ Format: <adjective> Was <name> Charming Was Husky Contains “The” Laren The Norn Just a dude (e.g. “Bob Green”) Its Randee 2+ vowel clusters (but not oo, ee, aa, etc) Vaaear Alchemy or Synergy __________ Light themed Holy Palidan Flames Azerys Firefang 3+ diacritics Hößßës Killers, Slayers, & Banes Slayer for Jehovah Honorific titles (e.g. Lady, Lord, Emperor) Elsa Queen of Snow Leafy Ellia Trueleaf

Hey Bone! Khani & I would be more than happy to help you finish dungeoneer if we're on & not tied up doing something else. Hit us up. -Osh

Interesting post in reddit this afternoon for a "simpler" quickness rotation, one which omits use of Conundrum Split as a required step in the rotation. https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/596shf/gnus_guide_to_easy_quickness_in_five_simple_steps/ I feel a lot of thought went into the post, but I'm not sure it's getting a lot of love from the community (currently on page 2 and tending downward) . And, not having any raid experience with Chrono, it's hard for me to personally gauge the worth. The OP is rather long-winded, so here's the short version: I think the thing that most drew my interest is the explanation of how this "frees up" CS for other scenarios, not necessarily just for another round of quickness skills. To be clear, I don't think this post was intended for competent Chronos who have mastered established rotations, even post-patch. Rather, it's geared toward squads who suddenly are in need of that 2nd Chrono or those aspiring to take up the class for raids that might be intimidated by all other options. The stated goal was to create something that is "approachable, simple, and easily repeatable while being very efficient". Again, your feedback is welcome. (har har)