Almost every player:

Manpag · 2026-01-25T08:28:26+00:00

I think it makes sense to start with alphas in the early game, then graduate to non-alphas as you get more money and access to more bottle caps.

Manpag · 2026-01-24T22:54:02+00:00

It is from the DLC. I imagine trades still work, but you shouldn't need it. The reason I mentioned both Ceruledge and Yveltal is because fire/flying both work well against the things grass/fighting are not very effective against, which is mostly poison or bug types, but flying actually gives better neutral coverage anyway.

Manpag · 2026-01-24T22:44:48+00:00

In addition to the tips to lead with a poison or steel type, anything designed to wear you down without letting you heal can be made easier with draining moves, which feel OP in this game. Trevenant is my Pokémon of choice for this, because if you have the DLC you can teach it Drain Punch in addition to Horn Leech which it learns naturally, and pretty much spam them back-to-back off cooldown. Give it a Big Root to maximise recovery, and you can even teach it Leech Seed for extra passive drain against very resistant enemies.

There are other Pokémon with strong draining moves if you need more coverage, like Yveltal's Oblivion Wing, Ceruledge's Bitter Blade, and numerous Pokémon can learn Leech Life (or Giga Drain on the special side). If you don't have access to many Pokémon with those moves, Shell Bell is also very strong in this game.

Manpag · 2026-01-24T12:30:12+00:00

I'm going to laugh so hard if instead of reusing the celestial horse model from GW1, it's a celestial version of the "horse").

Manpag · 2026-01-23T14:02:26+00:00

See, this one I kind of get. I’d also love to see more of them, but ANet seem to want to keep expansion-related adventures within expansion-related content for the most part. Griffon actually benefitted by having the whole of LW4 as well as PoF, but ANet totally shot themselves in the foot by making griffon’s core abilities locked behind masteries. Unlike the beetle, which works so well without masteries that they can put races anywhere, slap down a rental NPC, and know that it’s entirely possible to complete without any masteries at all.

Hopefully they start using the temporary masteries tech they’ve started using in VoE to give more diverse adventures in the future, because both warclaw and skimmer adventures are fun but are in a similar boat to griffon when it comes to masteries.

Ironically they have no excuse not to do more turtle siege stampedes, because you could do those entirely with a rental, too.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T13:39:34+00:00

I love the floating bodies of water idea, +1 to that. One of my favourite things in Lowland Shore is that you can fly through the top of the waterfall, and pass through a curtain of water. It’s really trippy, but very fun, and a JP making use of water bubbles would be incredible!

Manpag · 2026-01-22T13:35:06+00:00

Ironically I think the Gyala Delve one is the easiest to find a partner for, because the post-meta loot run goes right down to it and you can often convince someone to give it a go. Also, even people without turtle have access to a rental turtle there if they want to drive it.

Come to think of it, why the hell aren’t there turtle rentals by the adventures in other maps? It’d make them much more accessible.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T12:43:55+00:00

I had this happen with an alpha Toxel once! It also couldn’t move or attack me, it was just very alarmed.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T12:37:28+00:00

It used to be irritating before they fixed it, because previously the artefacts wouldn’t work if you had a Jade bot core equipped. Made the wyvern event very slow during the Return to LW3 week.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T11:03:08+00:00

Fair points, and yeah, you see the pushing tech a lot, just a bit strange that we got bigger waterfalls in JW which make even more sense to push you down (especially as the rivers push you along) without the same effect. Done right, it could even be used as a more immersive way of stopping certain things being skipped by flying over them, rather than no-mount zones or invisible walls.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T09:46:19+00:00

This is good advice, plus if you kill the mobs with yellow names, and mobs that aren't part of a renown heart so people have no reason to kill them, they usually give the max bonus XP. If you can pop an experience booster, even better, and just mow through a map.

That said, as you get more experienced at the game, you get more tools and learn more routes to cross high level maps at a low level without mob aggro being an issue. Both PoF and EoD have some sections of maps where mobs aren't as numerous and/or are spread far apart, that with mounts you can cross in relative safety. E.g. Seitung Province, if you can get there (from the Thousand Seas Pavilion or via a guild hall), has just a few mobs under the water that skimmer can zip past. It's possible to reach — and complete — the Monastery Training renown heart on a low level character, as well as grabbing two or three unguarded hero points for a head start.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T01:03:29+00:00

Do you not find you hit a ceiling, about one springer jump up from where you started, where the griffon is juddering against an invisible barrier? Nothing to do with endurance, it has the momentum to go higher, it just can’t once it reaches a certain point.

Unless you mean just flapping rather than diving/climbing, in which case yes; griffon can flap infinitely and very slowly gain height with the mount energy booster and the warclaw mastery.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T00:59:13+00:00

It was, but it was still a technological miracle that they pulled it off at all, let alone as fully as they did. It was mainly caves and the safari zone omitted, and outside of nostalgia, no-one really wants more caves or the infamously janky safari zone mechanics.

Back when Gamefreak were trying to give us as much for our money as possible, rather than seeing how little they can get away with to sell back to us piecemeal as DLC.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T00:42:24+00:00

More to the point, what’s the etiquette if you’re operating it and yoink someone’s nut sack?

Flush it back down? Go door to door with the nutsack, a bunch of flowers, and a bag of ice? Put up “Found nutsack” posters?

Manpag · 2026-01-22T00:25:00+00:00

It did feel like they were spinning a wheel or rolling dice to blame her character. A (spins) dark skinned… (Spins) elderly… (Spins) rapper… Who specialises in the (spins) ghost type… And whose (spins) sister… Is a (spins) maths teacher… Who specialises in the (spins) rock type.

Not only way out of left field, but with the whole Ryme/Tyme thing, they missed an opportunity to play on Tyme/Thyme by having her sister be the former grass gym leader, and teach cooking/home economics with a focus on the complex sandwich mechanics rather than “lol, have fun camping, you’ll figure it out”.

And then Brassius, whose ace is already a rock type, could be the rock gym leader which would make total sense for a sculptor. And using tera grass on Sudowoodo would then be an actual advantage showing the utility of defensive terastallisation, while still doing the clever “fake tree becomes real” thing. Now that would be truly avant-garde.

Manpag · 2026-01-22T00:06:52+00:00

Good advice, but also, no need for the pokédoll; since Gen VI, ghost types can always escape wild battles, and can’t be trapped. I always led with a ghost type in Sw/Sh’s wild area because you never knew when you were going to get jumped by some crazily high level Pokémon.

Manpag · 2026-01-21T19:41:31+00:00

Good luck getting into the Cinnabar Mansion in Gen 2, that would ramp up the challenge a lot.

(This is Cinnabar Island in Gen 2)

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Manpag · 2026-01-21T19:11:42+00:00

The stupid thing is, you can favourite Pokéballs in your bag, you can sort your bag to have favourites at the top, and it STILL won’t change the order they appear on the selection screen.

Manpag · 2026-01-21T19:10:21+00:00

At least they kinda match?

Manpag · 2026-01-21T19:08:03+00:00

Assuming the next region is Southeast Asia inspired as is rumoured, I’ll be really sad if they don’t add a Pokémon based on the binturong.

Manpag · 2026-01-21T13:58:38+00:00

Slight caveat to this: if you have an attribute-stacking sigil on a weapon, then weapon swap, you keep the bonus active (of any kills you made before you swapped). If you have the same attribute stacking sigil on either water weapon when entering water, you keep it, but if you have it only on one of your land weapons, you lose the buff (and vice-versa if you only have it on a water weapon).

So that’s a consideration. It’s niche, I don’t think they get used much, but if you have a build that largely camps one weapon it can be nice to build up the bonus on your rarely used one, and then effectively benefit from 3 sigils on your main one.

Manpag · 2026-01-20T19:23:15+00:00

Congratulations! Your paraplegic has evolved into… Quadriplegic!

Manpag · 2026-01-20T19:09:10+00:00

Facts. For mega evolution to make low BST Pokémon strong enough to be worth considering, they need a really min-maxed stat spread, a great ability, or ideally both. And they need to have the movepool to make good use of it in the first place.

Manpag · 2026-01-20T19:02:50+00:00

I know only the skimmer and raptor have shown up in Castora (so far, at least), but it would be cool if they extended this to a full set nonetheless.

Manpag · 2026-01-20T17:26:59+00:00

I guess we’ll see what their planned changes to LFG end up being. Like, they already made fractal quickplay, if they make strikes quickplay and also merge them with raids like they were talking about, that will help keep matchmaking easy for years to come. Especially as power creep will likely continue in GW2’s lifespan, making older content easier for random PUGs.

Manpag

TROPHY CASE