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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!

Not to speak for Fred, but he intended this to be a place to gather helpful tips on PoF completion. In this case, this is a map location he discovered that reliably drops Late-Blooming Elon Lily You need to collect 10 lillies to combine them into a Florid Bouquet, which progresses The Collection of Tribute. More importantly, completion of this gets those pesky things out of Ser's bags!

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

So, is everyone who was able to transferred? Did anyone need help with anything to get started?

What class should I play? A few people have asked me this question and this is my definitive answer: any class you want to. As far as I'm concerned no one should ever be required to run any particular class or build. Our number one goal is to have fun, after all, if we're not having fun, why are we doing this? What fun is it to have a dictator telling you want to play? That said, it is undeniable that some classes and builds are better suited to WvW havoc than others. If you want build suggestions, more explanation of the pros and cons of builds, or a better understanding of what roles we need to fill in our squad, please ask (probably me or Oddgo are a good place to start. As always, Google knows everything). Here are some points to keep in mind: The current small group havoc meta is is something like 2 reapers (dps), 1 support tempest (for cc, heals and boons), and 2 of Revenant, guardian, Mesmer, warrior (for dps, cc, boons). For survivability, it's helpful to have access to mobility, stun breaks, and some way to deal with condis. For fights, it's helpful to have access to boon strip, cc, and AoE dps. I've linked to a few meta builds above. I think they are a good place to start if you want to see suggestions. I, obviously, am not an expert in every build and role, but this is how I've been thinking of these: Support Tempest Role: This isn't your fragile glass cannon dps ele. This is a heal bot (or heal person) with more than enough auras and boons to go around. Support tempest is one of the anchors of the group who keeps our dps on their feet so they can wreck face. Group supporting skills: Auras, Rebound, Wash away the pain, condition clearing shouts. Plentiful CC from dagger/focus. Survivability/mobility: You're wearing full minstrels, so yeah. You've got lighting flash for your "oh shit" button. Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCALAxtotsSZHEXpCY2L00FQ Condi Reaper (both axe and GS) Role: One of, if not THE, main sources of dps in the group. Gives our opponents condi cancer with minimal effort. Can be glassy if you are running heavy on vipers. Group supporting skills: Its all about the dps and boon strip. However, your CC is plentiful and Chilled to the Bone can change the tide of a battle. Survivability/mobility: Can be challenging. Reapers shroud is your dps and survivability when you are focused (which is inevitable), so you probably want to pull off your big damage combo (5,4) and get out of there so it's up for survivability. Reapers shroud 2 is pretty much your mobility. Paying careful attention to positioning and where your healer is is highly recommended. Gameplay videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBHGaKxX6392J6GRq5LFNdg Mesmer/chrono Role: The build above is a big glassy big damage dealer. I can probably find a tankier boon support build if anyone is interested. Group supporting skills: In my admittedly limited understanding of Mesmer, seems like Mass Invisibility is one of the big advantages of having one in our ranks. If the Zerg is coming and we need to run away or we simply need time to regroup and reposition, mass invis can give us space. Survivability/mobility: The build above gives you blink and access to stealth. Not to mention all those f-ing clones. Gameplay videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnmow9Q4sw_JLTYb3Ly1Z0w Revenant Role: The build above is a tanky condi dpser. You are tough enough to soak up some of the damage and keep it off our reapers. Not to mention the real reason we have you along: spammable resistance. Group supporting skills: During a fight: Pain absorption. All. Day. Long. If it's looking good, feel free to throw in Banish Enchantment. Out of combat swap over to glint and stack those buffs (the reapers would appreciate some swiftness). Survivability/mobility: You're in Trailblazers, so yeah. Pain absorption is also a stun break which is super nice. Gameplay videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIdC5dSHc8gJYpQeG1tvATg Warrior/Beserker Role: Warrior offers a combination of dps, cc and boons. Group supporting skills: Headbut with stability allows you to stun the enemy so we can all unload the dps. Just please save 100 blades for cleaving the downs so we don't have to pick you up off the floor. Survivability/mobility: Endure pain and berserker stance make you more survivable than your gear leads one to believe. You've got a long block on shield and some good mobility and evade on GS. Gameplay videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKxKCu6hIWMtgnkVRHCiMYA Staff Daredevil Role: I don't have a build above but the staff daredevil build on metabattle (under WvW) would work well. This build can will primarily do dps. The metabattle description give some tips. Survivability/mobility: You're a daredevil with 3 dodges, short bow, and shadow step, need I say more? I hope one of these appeals to you. If not, that's cool too. Feel free to theory craft your own. There are tons of other builds out there, including ranger, thief, and engi. I would need to do some research to be able to recommend something. I believe Oddgo would be happy to consult with anyone who wants to.

My rev is ready to roll regardless. Just let me know.

Following up on this haiku ... I've definitely taken the time to reconsider life decisions after eating Matthias' hadouken mutlitple times last night. I will provided two haikus in the 5/7/5 format!! Icy was the air Although red is all I saw Straight to the face, shit. Abomination Red ground, he prepares his blast Too fast, defeated. Short and sweet, feel free to post if you want. Definitely feel a lot better after making these haikus

Get on my level

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

And the card is... 8 of Clubs! London guessed the exact card and gets 10 gold! (Card art by Andreas Preis) Guessing is now open for this upcoming week! Place your guess here!

And crucially, Thank you, Aidyn, for initiating and leading this move!