Urgh

So, I tried playing GW2 today (I am apparently playing allll the MMOs this month?).

I am mildly frustrated.

I decided that I really wanted to focus on my Mesmer. Reason being that I don't like the playstyle that is currently advised for Necro, but the Mesmer one sounded okay. I like being utility better than pure DPS anyway. Plus, I love Mesmer in WvW, but did not like Necro in WvW.

I haven't seriously messed with my Mesmer since HoT's release. I remember that I'm stuck on Hearts and Minds (I'll probably finish that up this week regardless), and was grinding Hero Points to max out Chronomancer, as well as finishing up map completion.

So, anyway, because I haven't played her since HoT's release, all my gear is left over from the old all-Berserker meta, when I'm seeing that I need to be in Assassin's gear with Berserker weapons/trinkets. Great.
I look up where to get Assassin's exotics. No karma vendors. No dungeon gear. My only option appears to be crafting it myself or buying it. Buying it is out of the question, since each piece appears to be about 11G each. I had about 20G to my name. I was able to level up my Tailoring considerably today; I'm about 350 tailoring now, which I don't think is high enough to craft my own Exotics yet, and my gold supply is dwindling too quickly. I have about 11G now.

My gear right now looks like the following:

All armor is full Berserker exotics
Weapons are all Berserker. I have two exotic swords, and exotic staff, and exotic shield, as well as rare focus, pistol, and greatsword.
Accessories/trinkets vary widely. Rare Berserker backpiece with Exquisite Ruby Jewel. Exotic Berserker accessory with Exquisite Charged Ambrite Jewel. Exotic Soldier's accessory (I kept dying in HoT...), Ascended Berserker amulet, and then bad not-even-rare rings (one Soldier's, one Berserker).

So, basically, my gear is kind of bad. I need to make money to get better gear. But I feel like I need better gear in order to make money. I think I could probably get by with my Berserker gear for some dungeons / low level fractals, but I'm not sure about those rings...Or that one Soldier's accessory...

How do I make gold? D:
Also, I'm too nervous to enter fractals or dungeons, so that is problematic and makes me question what I'm even working on this for in the first place...I don't know, the thought of entering some sort of content, maybe...

Edit:
Well, poo. All that work for nothing. I got my Tailoring up to level 400 and unlocked all the recipes I need to craft myself some exotics, but with the price of materials...I'd only be saving 1G by crafting it then by buying it outright. Grand total of about 61G.

I guess...I could make a couple pieces, and then try to run a dungeon or a fractal or something. Maybe. Or I could use some of my remaining gold to upgrade my rings at least.

I'm going to go wallow for a few minutes and then find something to cheer myself back up again!

Just an interesting thing that happened today

OH, I'M SO SORRY THRALL.
DON'T MIND ME, I'LL JUST FIGHT OFF THREE DEATHWINGS.

I have honestly never done this quest line before, and the first part was aggravating because I didn't know I was supposed to die at that part, so I had all my armor on and I was fighting off the bloods for about 10 minutes before I looked it up and found out I had to die, so then I just read on my phone for a few minutes while the bloods killed my character.


Ignore my bad graphics (bad computer) and FPS counter (I was having horrible framerate issues for good, obvious reasons when I had killed hundreds of bloods in the first part, and forgot to turn off the FPS counter).

I just thought this was funny. I mean, three Deathwings appeared, and, actually, if you look closely, you will see that there are two Thralls. That, or Thrall grew another arm. One of the two.

Why am I doing this, you ask? Certainly not for loremaster! I can't be bothered with that.
No, no, for the wonders of transmog!

Seriously, I am trying to get the "Marker's Hauberk," which apparently requires me to do pretty much the entirety of the Twilight Highlands quests. Fun :|

I really like this

I've been messing with WoW the past couple of days since the pre-patch is out and all, and just messing with my characters to see which ones I like now and which ones I don't.

I think it's time to retire my Shadow Priest. The playstyle is interesting, but realistically, the whole keeping up Voidform thing seems just a tiny bit too stressful for me. Also, honestly, I don't like the new Shadowform's look either. It's too light :|
I'll probably still mess with her occasionally. I'm not mad about the changes or anything. I get it. I get why people like it. I really, really do. I personally just do not like it. I do not want it to be changed back, because that isn't fair to the people who love the new playstyle. I'm just not going to play it.

I also do not understand my Balance Druid anymore. I don't know. I feel like I'm following the Icy Veins rotation guide and I still feel like I'm doing something wrong. Might just be an adjustment period thing.


Now, what I really like is my Marksmanship Hunter. I had boosted a Hunter to 90 with the free boost from WoD a while back, but never bothered to level her, so she is level 92 right now, and I'm leveling. I love her new playstyle. I never leveled her before because I felt like the playstyle was a bit too clunky, and I can never really get into pet classes (besides Scholar in FFXIV!).

I feel like I'm in the minority here, but I LOVE my MM Hunter now. The rotation is calming and repetitive, but not really in a boring way. Procs are exciting! There is nothing super stressful like Shadow Priest's Void Form. I don't have to have a pet because Lone Wolf is a level 15 talent now. AND, I messed with MogIt to find a good transmog idea, and my character is going to look amazing. I already have 2 pieces I needed (had someone make the pants and belt I needed with leatherworking). The rest of the pieces I'll collect once I hit level 100, since they're all from old content, minus the helm, which is in Tanaan Jungle / a drop, according to MogIt.

That was amazing

I just got put into Titan normal from roulette, and had an amazing run.

First time we wiped because both DPS got hit by Landslide and then the tank didn't get me out of Gaol.

Second time, a DPS got hit by Landslide very quickly, and then the tank got hit soon after Earthen Fury. Like, literally the first or second Landslide after.

The remaining DPS (Ninja) and I finished Titan off after that. It was amazingly hilarious. I was able to keep him alive as he tanked and killed it, and he was able to get me out of Gaols.

But hey, we did it! And it was great!

FFXIV: Palace of the Dead Semi-Guide Thing

So, I was able to solo Floors 1-10 with Scholar without too much trouble. Until you get to level 4 it is torturous because you don't have Eos yet, but it's smooth sailing after that. I mean, it gets even easier when you hit level 10 and can use cross-class skills and have access to Cleric's Stance, but that was barely even on my radar at that point.
Time wise, I feel like you should get more time if you're in there solo. I got to the end with 10 minutes remaining, and ended the boss fight with only 2 remaining, so I was cutting it very close.

I was not able to solo floors 10-20 though, because of the stupid Palace Slimes that explode if you can't kill them fast enough, with no warning or prior notice, so you just automatically die and wonder what happened.

Anyway, I then restarted with a matched group. Floors 1-10 were painless. We ended up having three Scholars and a Bard. Let's just say that there was no way any of us could even have gotten below half health, what with three Scholars, all with Eos out.

The first boss has a few AoEs. If I remember correctly, a frontal cone, a circle centered around the boss, a one targeted circle. He also does a roomwide, unavoidable AoE that puts a wind DoT on you.

Floors 10-20...less painless. Still relatively easy, but I don't know...I feel like it looked like I was bad at positioning because I kept accidentally pulling things with my butt, but I honestly think things just kept spawning behind me since that's what happens in Palace of the Dead. We also had awful luck with traps and treasure chests. I think we got our equipment upgraded once; the rest of the time the chests just exploded.
Anyway, our group composition was a Warrior, a Ninja, an Astrologian, and me as Scholar. So, two healers.
At one point, I had once again gotten attacked by a freshly spawned enemy, and was trying to kill it since I think my tank was done with me at that point and ignored it. So, I was off killing that. Apparently, in the meantime, the rest of the group went off and started fighting one of the Palace Slimes, and they clearly didn't kill it fast enough because the next thing I know they're all dead.
I'm not very good at sarcasm, so I felt really bad and I felt like they were making fun of me. They probably weren't. Because I wasn't right with them, I didn't get killed by it, so I was able to resurrect all of them.

The rest of the floors went fine.

The Floor 20 boss is a bit trickier than the first, but only slightly. He has a long column AoE and targeted circle ones. He marks a player (it was always the tank for us) with Prey, and whoever that is will be targeted by two Bee adds that can be killed. He also does an occasional room-wide AoE that does a surprising amount of damage, but too bad if you have  healer. I think that was it for this fight. I feel like the boss probably also poisons you, but maybe not. I might be confused with the couple earlier floors where there was poison flying like crazy.

Floors 21-30 are a considerable difficulty raise, primarily due to two new enemies, the Palace Cyclops and the Palace Scatane. The Palace Cyclops does huge amounts of damage, and the Scatane does an AoE Sleep which we couldn't figure out how to avoid.
This time around, my party composition was a Black Mage, an Arcanist, a Machinist, and me as an Astrologian. So, no tank. Luckily, we didn't run into a Cyclops + Scatane combo, which I've heard can happen. The Cyclops does do a huge amount of damage, so I would advise any healers to make sure everyone has as close to full HP as you can manage. I know that I got hit by one of its attacks and I survived with a tiny bit of HP and was able to Essential Dignity myself to life. The Scatanes will Sleep you regardless (maybe it can be Silenced?). I tried to send out an Aspected Helios before the cast went off. It appears taking damage will negate the Sleep. In this case, I theorize that if you were in the situation where pulling both a Scatane and a Cyclops was unavoidable, perhaps you should have a healer pull the Scatane so it wakes them up immediately so they can keep everyone else alive / cleanse? Just a thought. Of course, this would only work if you have a healer.

I haven't really gotten a good look at the boss yet, since we had three DPS so it went down insanely quickly. As far as I can tell, it will target a random player and put a fire or ice puddle under them. The fire ones do damage, the ice ones slow your movement speed drastically. He also does an AoE blast that doesn't do too much damage. Also, and I'm not sure what caused this (perhaps it was the AoE?) he Fears you, which can be quite catastrophic if luck is not with you and you end up running straight into the fire puddles.

Floors 31-40 are...I think they're easier than 21-30 trash-wise, but things can get hairy pretty fast too. Our composition was a Dragoon, a Ninja, and two Astrologians. Most of the trash is straightforward. There's some that have huge cone AoEs from their tails. On the later floors there's Palace Troubadours who do pretty high AoE damage. Also, if you're think you're smart like we did and try to have a Ninja sneak through to pick up chests, be aware that the Palace Zombies and some other mobs can see them and will pull the entire room to them. So, you know, I would only do that if you know for a fact there's a silver chest in there and no zombies.

The boss is fairly difficult, particularly since these floors take a bit longer to clear anyway, leaving you a bit time crunched. He throws out a lot of circle AoEs, but they are easily avoidable. I'm not sure if all of them stick to the ground as puddles, or if I just wasn't paying attention as things got hectic. He also uses "Accursed Pox" which is a much larger AoE circle. I assume standing in this will give you the Pox debuff, which can only be cleared with one of the dungeon-specific items (Pomander of...Purity, I think? Maybe it's not Purity, I don't know), so, you know, don't do that.
He also does a big roomwide AoE which does a little damage, freezes you in place, and then does a TON of damage. We lost our poor Dragoon at this part, but it was easy to get him back up and into the fight. He was our "tank" for the fight. I assume he died because he already had a bit of damage going into the AoE. I would advise having your "tank" healed to full before it begins, as well as anyone who may have damage.

Floors 41-50 have hard-hitting trash. Our group composition was a Warrior, a Dragoon, a White Mage, and me as an Astrologian. These floors were the first time I encountered three of the floor effects: Gloom, which makes all enemies on the floor more powerful, the one that makes you unable to use abilities, and the one that makes you unable to use items (including Pomanders). These effects are all rather obnoxious at best. If you get the one that makes you unable to use abilities, you had better hope you have a Pomander that can clear floor effects, because I'm not sure how the floors are possible without abilities. We got unlucky and got the one that stops items/Pomanders from being used PLUS Gloom, so we couldn't clear Gloom. The trash is hard hitting, but nothing too bad mechanically.
The boss is interesting. I wouldn't say it was entirely difficult, but interesting. The skill names were rather memorable, so I actually have those this time. Please be warned that the skill names may be spoilers for some people, so do not read the detailed version if you don't want to know.
The relatively spoiler free version first:
Not much damage going out. The major things to be aware of are a roomwide AoE with a safe zone beneath the boss's feet, a circular AoE under the boss's feet that you need to run out of, a skill called "Cold Feet" which when you see it casting you need to turn away from the boss, targeted circle AoEs, and an unavoidable roomwide blast. Avoid all the AoEs and turn away for Cold Feet, and the boss shouldn't be too much of an issue.

------SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT-----
Her first ability is Dark Harvest, which just is an attack on her primary target. It doesn't do too much. I'm not sure if it has a secondary effect or something.
Next up, we have In Health. This skill takes two forms. The first is a roomwide AoE with a safe spot underneath the boss. The second is a large circle AoE under her that you need to run out of. The first one she does will be the roomwide one, and the second will be the circle. At this point, she'll usually use them one after the other, so there's a lot of going in-and-out.
Black Honeymoon is a roomwide AoE that can't be avoided, but luckily doesn't do too much damage.
Cold Feet is an important move to be aware of. When you see her start casting, you need to turn away from the boss or you'll be petrified.
At some point she will also spawn some adds which cannot be attacked, but they target the group with circle AoEs which need to be avoided. For us, this was immediately followed by the roomwide In Health.
Not too difficult of a fight as not much damage is going out so long as everyone dodges AoEs.

------------

Overall opinions, after completing all 50 floors plus the "true ending" questline that you can only accept  once you've completed all floors + Tam-Tara Hard?
Pretty positive! I liked the difficulty of the content, it was just difficult enough while still being mildly relaxing and not setting off my anxiety. I also quite liked that I was able to slowly ease myself back into healing on my Astrologian. Since running the Vault a few times last time I played, I've been too nervous to pick AST back up and try it again, especially after taking a month-long break, but Palace of the Dead has helped me regain my muscle memory and healing confidence.
In that sense, I feel like Palace of the Dead is could end up becoming a truly useful tool for returning players who want to slowly get a re-handle on their high level characters. Another big benefit that I foresee is trying out new classes that you're not sure if you're going to like yet. I may do this with Ninja or Machinist. I have to go through more in order to get my weapon anyway, so I might as well try some new things besides healing.
I really like the freeform party system, as well, even though I am typically a huge supporter of the trinity setup (I like healing!). I felt like I still had my "role" as healer, but I also had a bit more freedom to DPS more too, and it was rather fun. It was neat to see everyone else being more creative and lenient with their typical roles too. I feel like it actually probably has made me a better healer in trinity content because, well, if I was unconfident stance swapping before I certainly am comfortable now. It also helped me get more comfortable with the concept of my party members dying and it being beyond my control, thanks to the Palace Slimes and Palace Cyclops, explosive traps, etc. I can probably be a bit more stoic and cool-headed healer now rather than the anxious mess I always am. Okay, slightly less anxious.
I think tomorrow I'm going to try the Vault again and face my fear! And if all goes well, I will hopefully continue the MSQ, since I stalled on that out of nervousness.
If all doesn't go well, well, I can always try out more classes in the Palace of the Dead! :D

Also, that last boss fight was seriously so fun for me. I hope they will eventually implement a way to skip ahead to floors you've completed once you've cleared the Palace so I can go and do that one again without having to do the entire thing again, because 21-30 is kind of a pain :|

Am I doing something wrong? I can't tell.

I was playing my Bard (level 40) in leveling roulette. I got Haukke Manor. Fine, I know that dungeon. I've directed groups through that dungeon before. No problem.

My problem is, and this applies to many other pre-Quelling Strikes dungeons is that I keep getting aggro off the tanks, and it's frustrating.

It's frustrating because I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or not. I'm doing my rotation, and in these situations I don't use my nice attack boosting CDs (as in, Blood for Blood / Raging Strikes etc.) because I know that if I do any more DPS then I'll take enmity. I slow down my rotation a bit, and I wait a good few seconds for the tank to get aggro.

And still, I usually end up pulling things off of them. I always feel horrible about it.

Today, this happened in every single boss fight too. I sometimes ended up stopping attacking entirely because I was on the absolute verge of getting aggro. Like, the enmity bar was filled, I just didn't have it yet. But then I feel bad stopping my DPS because then I feel like I'm a bad DPS. And I also feel bad not using all my CDs because again, I feel like a bad DPS. I could be doing soooo much more damage!

It's better post-30 or so once I have Quelling Strikes and tanks have better skills and stuff, but it is awful in the early level dungeons.

I hate the concept of cross class skills so much. I hate that on my SMN I can have Quelling Strikes for Sastasha (or, more importantly / relevantly, Haukke Manor when I have access to Bane :3 ), but I don't have it until 34 on my Bard. No way to control your own aggro is a pain.

DPS is certainly not my favorite job, but I hope I'm not as awful as I feel at it. I'm too stressed out to heal, and no one should ever have to be put through me tanking, so DPS it is...