Maia

I need to watch this guide about 100 more times.

As many of you know I just recently got into fractals. Yes, I know they have been in the game since 2k12. Not to brag-just kidding I'm going to brag a little-I'm pretty proud of my progress in the last 2-3 weeks. In the time since I decided "I'm going to start doing fractals" to now I've 1. Gotten my personal fractal level to 93 2. Gotten my AR on my condi Druid/ranger to 150, and I only bought 2 +7 infusions. My ele is at 62 and my condi ps war is at 70. 3. Finished the Fractal Initiate and Fractal Adept achievements and have one more left for Fractal Expert (level 71). 4. Gotten my first ascended box. Yeah, it was healers shoulders, but it still counts. 5. Gotten my first golden fractal skin. Staff! 6. Bought the infinite defensive mists potion. Not bad for exclusively PUGing if I do say so myself. The guide I've been waiting for was finally put on YouTube today. Derior, for those of you who don't know, is a member of KING and has great guides to all of the fractals.

This made me laugh out loud. https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/5t5yvi/how_i_feel_kiting_at_the_4th_boss_spoiler/ When I first found out the Sabetha flak kiting thing was back I was pretty annoyed. I mean don't druids get enough of the bad jobs? Now, I can't wait to write my own messages.

Today is the big day! While I respect people who want to experience everything without previous knowledge (*cough, cough* Kintari), I want to see it ASAP! If anyone is interested, I frequently watch Mighty Teapot who is streaming the raid live today. https://www.twitch.tv/mightyteapot Hopefully, I can keep anything I learn to myself.

This new thing Anet has where they tell us the week before barely gives me enough time to be excited!

For Sabetha at least

No rush on those provisioners tokens then...

Vote for this one!

So tonight I decided to practice DD/tempest in Wing 1 and joined a pug from one of the lfg raid guilds I belong to. To my surprise one of my pug mates was a semi well known streamer, luality. You can see the footage here: https://www.twitch.tv/luality/v/115053989 It starts around 45:00. My favorite part is around 1:05 when her twitch followers insult my choice of class and decide it would be better if I was running guardian. The part where someone calls her lazy for not porting us past the champ in spirit run is pretty funny too. You really never know who you're running with when you pug. Although I should have probably figured it out from her name and guild tag [cute]. Even more exciting, after she left we did Sabetha and I did 'even' cannons for the first time and no missed cannons! Whoooo! It's possible I'll become a competent DD!

My testing shows the exact same thing: Thief = Condi ranger < Staff tempest on large hitbox by 4-6k (depending on how good my rotation is that day) I think DD is supposed to be slightly better than condi ranger, but I'm more familiar with ranger than DD so, oh well. The more I play DD the more I've come to love the extra dodge I can't promise a repeat of my flawless performance every time (beginners luck haha), but I'm feeling more comfortable and would be happy to give one of our regular cannon runners a break if they would like.

In the current meta druids are responsible for pushing the orb on Keep Construct. Typically druids use staff 1 because the skill cool down and the orb movement cool down are approximately the same. That said, I don't like how it feels. Therefore, I've been looking for alternatives, and I found one a few days ago on Reddit. This stategy involves starting with staff to push the orb to the first rift and then quick drawing long bow 4 to push the orb into the next two rifts. The pros are it's quicker than staff because you're using a push twice. I'm also hoping it feels better. The cons are you are stuck with using staff/longbow instead of staff and s/a. Although if your running Magi Druid, it probably doesn't matter that much. Here's the guide for any who are interested: Twisted has done a great job "pushing" for Boomslang, but I can't help but feel like I should pitch in too. Maybe we'll have some time to try this out at some point.

Doing it again ?!?!?

Congrats team! Had a good laugh watching myself run around the perimeter of the platform while on fire. It's your turn next Twisted!

TL;DR: TC will be less painful if we use this 5 button strat with the entire group (not solo) TL;DR 2: Maia gets easily obsessed about stuff. What a weirdo. Last night at the Boomslang Raid I mentioned the Mesmer portal strategy for TC. Because no one else was familiar with it, I decided to do what I typically do when a "puzzle" like that bothers me: I researched it. (Yes, I know I have a problem. No, I'm not getting professional help.) From what Mighty Teapot, Nike, and Brazil said about this strat during the Elitist Raiding Party Tournament, it is (as Kintari would put it) the new hotness. The idea is to do the solo strat shown in this video with an entire party. This way we only have to hit 5 buttons. https://youtu.be/0qr_daPyYkw 1. Zerg goes right, kills mobs, goes to next room and hits first button. Zerg then purposely ports back to beginning using statue. 2. Zerg goes left, goes through 'pain' room, gets to the next room and kills mobs and continues using behind portal. 2a. One person goes to forward portal, hits the button, returns to the beginning and joins the group by going the left route. (I'm calling this the first split room) 3. At second split room, Zerg kills mobs 3a. Mesmer with falling damage reduction places portal and dodges or falls down to next level (land on arch) and places portal. Open portal. Rest of the group portals down. 3b. One person does not take the Mesmer portal. Instead they take the 'door' portal on the left and waits for door to open, hits button and returns to start. 4. Zerg kills mobs at bottom of stairs, hit button 4a. One person goes back to hit button as shown in video: https://youtu.be/MoAu0J_GQsA at time stamp 0:49 5. Zerg heads through door at top of stairs 6. Zerg makes way to end of maze 7. Win Videos: Zerg view: https://youtu.be/v-FiGnV5DpM https://youtu.be/ZOVXJXJiMwU Mesmer jump and port: At 18:12 in this video: https://youtu.be/0aqPFP7TpLI In this one too: https://youtu.be/Mim6W8Vf9xg