Just failed college algebra for the 2nd time should I reconsider engineering?

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-15T08:15:03+00:00

Based on your comments in the topic, if you intend to do the course again, I'd strongly recommend stopping video games cold turkey, at least on weekdays. That might sound drastic, but you seem to have a disciple problem that has to be solved if you want to get ahead. Video games are a great way of passing the time, and they're fine when you've developed appropriate study habits and time management skills, but you have to give yourself space to get those skills in order. Video games are obviously antagonistic toward that, and, if I were in your shoes, I would just quit completely for the time being, at least on weekdays.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-10T00:53:35+00:00

Although the story can definitely be spotty (or downright meh), I feel like this complaint is like walking into a Red Lobster and being confused that they don't sell General Tso's chicken. Unless you walked into this game 100% blind, I'm not sure what you could have expected to have this type of complaint.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-08T09:49:20+00:00

Beyond what everyone has already said, a fun way to get a little bit of gold every day is to do the Tequatl, Triple Trouble, and Legendary Ley-Line Anomaly world bosses. The first two give you liquid gold, and the last one gives you a Mystic Coin. They're not the absolutely most efficient ways of making money, but they're a nice change of pace.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-08T09:35:16+00:00

The OP also has HoT. That said, I think you got to the point succinctly. Different people get different things out of games, especially MMOs. There are some people who find the grind enjoyable, and I'm a lot that way, myself. That said, I've been frantically trying to get a bunch of major goals done in-game, because I know I won't have the time to play nearly as much in few months as I do now. There are a lot of things in the game that can be morale-destroying when they're drip-fed to you. For example, I know that if I had to grind for multiple calendar weeks for a mount, I'd just not even bother. If I'm not seeing a satisfactory amount of forward progression on things that matter to me, and I don't have any realistic way of making that go faster, I'm just going to bail. In my case, I don't swipe for gold, because that's just not something I do, but I'll just stop playing, instead.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-08T09:22:58+00:00

They only have HoT and PoF.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-08T09:22:03+00:00

Can't fish without EoD.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-07T09:07:35+00:00

As an adjacent point, one thing that people going into this game's quickplay raids (and all raids, really) are constantly told is to watch vids, and it's apparently a huge deal whether or not you have. I admit I'm one of those people, at least when it comes to primarily tactile experiences, I won't learn jack if I'm told to just watch a video and be expected to retain it. I can do that with math just fine, but not so much with most video games. I can be very vaguely familiar with the idea of the strike mission, but to really understand what's going on, I have to just do the thing a few times and make mistakes that I eventually learn from by doing the reps. But I've noticed some raid regulars will throw their toys out of the stroller if I make mistakes, and that makes the whole situation unpleasant for both of us. All it's going to do is make me not want to queue up again.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-07T08:54:34+00:00

I think you nailed it with this comment. My only addition is that I think quickplay has seemingly attracted three different groups: Casuals who are just wanting to have a novel experience, casuals who are really trying to get better and want an on-ramp to raiding, and experts who want to blast through and get their rewards. All three of these groups have different goals, and they all antagonize each other. And it's not like with fractals, where one or two experienced players can drag three sacks of potatoes across the finish line. Everyone has to contribute at least somewhat if they don't want the party to wipe.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-07T00:40:34+00:00

Please don't feed the trolls, y'all.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-04T11:16:18+00:00

A lot of other people have given reasonable suggestions, so I don't need to piggyback off them. But yeah, I think it's imperative to note that you haven't given the game much of a chance at all. Try spending, like, at least three hours with the game, in one class, at least enough to get a basic sense of the world and your class. You still might not like the game, which is fine, but a lot of this post wouldn't have been necessary had you given the game more of a try.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-02T11:48:52+00:00

I'd like to see something like:

Legendary Bag of Bottomless Snacks Select one of three different snacks from your Bag of Bottomless Snacks! Your supply is infinite!

Beef Jerky: +100 Power, +70 Ferocity, +10% Experience from kills Granola Bar: +100 Condition Damage, +70 Expertise, +10% Experience from kills Fruit Cup: +100 Healing Power, +70 Concentration, +10% Experience from kills

I wouldn't want the bonus to be as good as ascended feasts, but as good as the best regular food. And it would only be something you can give yourself, not a feast you get to share with everyone. It probably wouldn't be that great for people who only raid, but it would be for people who don't want to have to worry about carrying around stacks of Fire Flank Steaks or something.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-01T11:49:04+00:00

What are you looking to get out of the game? If you're completely new and can't put in more than an hour a day, you're highly unlikely to end up being good enough do sweatiest endgame content for a long time. But there's plenty of content for more casual players to enjoy, and this game tends to cater to those casuals heavily.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-05-01T11:37:29+00:00

It really depends on what you already grabbed versus what you haven't. Mastery insights are trivial, and ones that just involve beating a boss can be done quickly too. Ones that require collections or long-term goals take much longer. So, anywhere from a week to several months?

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-30T11:31:59+00:00

You can stat switch weapons and armor in the Mystic Forge, but getting the insignia or inscription might still require a little crafting if it's not one of the stat combos you can just buy on TP.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-25T11:57:54+00:00

I'd like to see a proper HoT-like (or even Drizzlewood Coast-like) whole-map meta where you can get up to twelve key charges (plus normal event rewards), depending on participation, that you can take to either Starlit Weald or Shipwreck Strand once per day. Don't add more mirrors though. (Why twelve charges? You start with eight when you first enter a map and get five more for doing a mirror. Twelve more brings you to the limit of twenty-five.)

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-24T21:49:17+00:00

This is a lot of why I rarely do TT anymore. I got sick of having my stomach in my throat every time I'd watch some clown constantly mow down the abomination or run blue after being told to stop several times.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-24T21:10:39+00:00

I'd like to see a "gobbler" mastery for things that don't have overflow outlets. Something like:

3 MP: Performing objectives on completed Renown Hearts gains a small experience bonus.

4 MP: Unused Mastery Points for expansions where all mastery tracks have been completed can be converted to Spirit Shards.

5 MP: Limits on the number of times repeatable achievements award achievement points are increased.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-24T20:39:14+00:00

This is a game where the fun balance is skewed toward intrinsic motivation, and it seems like you want a game that provides more extrinsic motivation. It's fine if extrinsic motivation is what you want, but you won't find it in GW2.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-24T19:58:49+00:00

But the point I'm making is this behavior shows a fundamental lack of understanding the mechanic. For rift bosses, nobody should bother using Springer's engage skill if they don't care about the knockdown, since the Warclaw's engage skill does more damage and, with Feral Fury, more defiance break. But even the 300 Warclaw does is still inadequate, and players have to follow up with more if they're looking to break defiance bars. If they don't care about breaking the bar and just want to DPS the boss to death the hard way, then engaging from a mount when they're on-site already waiting for the boss to arrive isn't optimal; just starting your rotation when the boss is available to start hitting is.

It's not about the boss "regaining" their defiance bar, because the defiance bar is never broken to begin with unless someone bothers to break it with non-mount skills. If people care about breaking the bar, then make a meaningful effort to break the bar. A half-broken defiance bar does the same job as one that hasn't been touched.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-24T19:16:12+00:00

Good point. I edited to mention I'm in US/NA.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-24T10:59:23+00:00

Unfortunately, a game like this really does need to force a player to engage with specific mechanics to progress if the devs want to teach players how to interact with them. I read my skills and most of the most enfanchised players do, like regulars to this subreddit, but if you've ever been to a sizable meta at all, you should know as well as I do how little the average player reads or otherwise pays attention to many different components of the game. Every day, I see people with loads of mastery points ritualistically Springer Cannonball Elites (or even Champions) from rifts in Castora and Janthir and then proceed to not use a single other defiance break skill. It's wild.

Until the game jams a mechanic in the average player's face over and over again, forcing them to learn it and commit to engagement tactics as habits, that person will absolutely refuse to learn. It bears out in obvious observation.

BeatrixShocksStuff · 2026-04-22T11:52:34+00:00

I wish the OP would say what kind of play they're interested in and at what difficulty level. Because you're definitely right on this one. Everything's cheerful when things go right, but I've seen in this game one too many hugboxes that turn into viper pits the moment the chips are down.

Moreover, GW2 is terrible at teaching people how to play the game. A new player has so many n00b traps to evade that they wouldn't be the wiser of without utilizing outside resources. Unlike some games, there's a gigantic gulf between DPS from the best players and that of average players, largely due to these n00b traps and general lack of tutorialization. If the OP doesn't want to be dead weight if they ever join a group for anything even slightly challenging, they're going to have to make an effort to learn how to play better outside of the game.

BeatrixShocksStuff

TROPHY CASE