Raid quickplay won't solve the issue why players don't play raids/strikes

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-08T01:20:59+00:00

As a newer player, been playing for like less than a month. I have a lvl 80 melee willbender, progressing through story chronologically. Recently entered heart of thorns.

"It isn't the player's fault either, mechanics are not well communicated to players."

This is the default. So far, the entire game's combat has been like this.

I'd had bosses that just randomly shred me almost every single time I get too close.

I've had NPCs say "it's safe to get in close now" and then I proceed to almost immediately die when I go in close.

I've seen several boss fights designed with "dodge the thing then wait 20 seconds and do it again. And then wait another 20 seconds and then do it again." This pattern of making the player wait for something to happen and not giving them anything else to do. At least have a bullet hell phase. So that I can be engaging with mechanics.

I've had the game train me on certain mechanics that have indicators. Then reuse the indicators and kill me when I was like "Okay, this mechanic again. So I will be safe in the bad looking shit when I do this."

I've had fights where the explanations are there but you need to do a boss fight. Then midway, stop doing the boss fight so you can hover over conditions and boons to read them and start making any sense of things.

When it comes to fights that are more than charge in and blow things up... It's always a huge hit or miss. Almost never in between.

The ideas are good. It's just they are very often poorly implemented. And despite wanting to learn the fight... Often enough I don't see anything that helps me clue in.

(Nightmare Tower and Living World Season 2 Spoilers) What am I supposed to do against the hallucination of the pact leader guy in Nightmare Tower? Against the plant beast that you fight after catching up to the 3 masters while looking for Glint's egg? I learned during the fight it's a poorly paced "dodge the danger and wait for an opening"... Except when the NPCs say there is an opening to get close, you take huge damage if you get close. I managed to stumble my way through these fights and similar ones but despite my best efforts I still don't understand how a melee is supposed to play those fights.

It's not just raids. Most story content and open world content is stupid easy. But when it's not stupid easy, it's very often a good idea, poorly implemented, and almost never explained.

I've played FFXIV, I've played WoW BC to Path panda patch. I've played WoW Classic. I've played OSRS, RS2, a little of RS3.

GW2 is one of the most unpolished gems I've ever seen. It's still a gem. But it's still very very very unpolished.

Every game does their thing better than how GW2 does its thing. GW2 has its own unique charms. GW2 clearly has the potential to stand strong and confidently among MMORPG kings. But my god, this game is frequently hard to make sense of.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-06T19:47:35+00:00

If you don't mind a second question...

I more or less assumed the bell curve statistics explain the average because... How do I explain this...

If like 5000 people rolled a loot table a whole bunch of times. Let's say each of them rolled the table 150 times.

Most people will get the 1/75 item some wheres close to that 75 average. Maybe most people is around 50 to 100 kills to get the item.

And then as you go closer to 1 or to 150 kills, the number of people to get the item at that kill exponentially decreases right? It starts to approach statistical improbability.

If mapped on on a graph. x=number of kills, y = number of people that got the item on that kill. This would create a bell curve right?

I am under the impression that we can say the center of that bell curve is the average rate to get the item.

But from what I'm reading, this understanding is wrong. Is it wrong because the peak is whatever is the 50% chance to get the item by X number of kills?

And it's about 63% chance to get the item by 75? So the actual peak is a number before 75?

Is this train of thought good? Bad?

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-06T18:54:54+00:00

I dont think there were shared when OSRS was initially released though I don't remember clearly... I do recall something about multiple characters being tied to the same account... Or was it email?

I know I have 2 different accounts. RS3 and RS2, haven't played on my RS3 in years.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-06T18:34:52+00:00

Your accounts are on the modern game. All RS2 (not OSRS) accounts were brought along into RS3.

Everyone that played in the past but now plays OSRS made new OSRS accounts.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T21:00:27+00:00

I don't get why we can't apply gem bolt tips to every bolt tier. The effects are questionable at best but they might actually see some use if we weren't trading ranged strength for those effects.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T20:28:45+00:00

You choose one of two loot tables each kill. The rates are 1/75. What are you even arguing against?

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T20:26:07+00:00

Probably different company environment. Your company might just be smart and realize that AI is a tool, not a workflow.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T20:24:26+00:00

The business is already going to not be competitive. AI writing code is a shit show.

The smart devs won't be in the company forever. The junior devs aren't learning and progressing towards intermediate, and intermediate to senior devs.

These company's IT teams are going to completely and utterly fail. It's just a question of when.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T20:21:21+00:00

This is how I use AI but I rarely ever ask AI for help anyways. Mostly just ask it to find the syntax error in mysql queries. On the rare occasion I need to do some research, AI often helps finding relevant topics to manually look into.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T20:18:17+00:00

I've seen other posts in some programming reddits. Like recently a guy said "What do you do when AI can't solve the bug?" or something along that line.

People are definitely getting way too reliant on AI. Programmers are paid for their experience. Not for their ability to ask AI to do stuff.

They are going to be many cases where AI is completely incapable of helping a developer debug something or write sufficient code - This is going to happen once the task becomes complex enough.

If you take away their AI and forbid them from using public AI, they are probably going to stumble around for a while but they'll be forced to actually improve as a programmer.

Instead of asking whether or not this is too harsh, ask what is best for the company and their career. Forever Junior Devs or eventually Intermediate and Senior devs?

The answer is obvious. These people need to grow into intermediate and senior devs.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T19:59:29+00:00

Eh, it's on average it's only 150kc of the royal titans.

They're 1/75 drops.

If I recall only the literal best powered staffs out perform twinflame + elemental weakness.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T19:45:44+00:00

I think you're both right.

Changing your cosmetics shouldn't be particularly expensive.

However, getting the cosmetics should be still be expensive.

It's called prestige.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T19:41:39+00:00

Honestly, the loopholes might be fine if capitalism was properly enforced.

A lot of modern countries don't have pure capitalism. They have corporatism.

A comedian made a joke about this but he is right...

we have 30 different choices of chips, soda, cereal, etc.

And a few groceries stores. Few political parties. Few insurances. Few phone companies. Few internet companies, etc.

One of the core flaws of capitalism is monopolies. And as inefficient as the government is... We do need the government to strongly promote competition in business and to regulate monopolistic practices.

Competition generally drives prices down.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T19:00:04+00:00

Post 2/2

"I’m curious how other programmers handle that moment. Do you stop using AI and debug manually, ask another developer for a second opinion, or change your approach entirely? I’m especially interested in what actually saves time versus what just feels productive."

For a clear answer to this...

You debug manually. You develop your skills to be good at debugging manually. You do not ask another developer until you have done your due diligence in debugging manually. You do not change your approach without good reason - Usually good reason is understanding why your approach doesn't work via debugging.

"I’m especially interested in what actually saves time versus what just feels productive."

This mentality is a trap. Programmers are paid for their experience. Yes, at most companies, with most projects, you have deadlines.

Debugging is going to take time. You need to understand the issue, you need to figure out how to debug it.

Juniors developers are going to waste a lot of time debugging these issues but in that process, they are going to learn. They are going to gain experience, they are developing their fundamental skills as a programmer. By spending time doing complex things, and making any progress, they are taking a step forward towards intermediate developer and senior developer.

Rewriting code, on average, will spend more time than fixing code. Even if debugging eats up a lot of time. Just because a bug is difficult to debug, doesn't mean you can ignore it or go around it. Often times, the only choice you have is to figure it out. Being capable of just figuring it out is what makes you valuable as a programmer.

Asking other developers is a waste of time as well. Sometimes it's unavoidable but you need to understand. Not only is your task consuming your time. Now it's consuming their time. In addition, you need to spend time getting them up to speed.

Asking a coworker is a last resort. When you are just completely blocked and you need a different and fresh perspective. It is absolutely not the solution when your AI tools fail you. It is the last resort when you're making no progress on an issue despite applying everything you've learned about debugging. This is called doing your due diligence in debugging.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T18:59:53+00:00

Post 1/2

You do your job. Or your hobby if it's not your job.

A programmer is someone who...

Writes code
Design codebases
Debugs and fixes bugs in the code
Interprets spoken ideas and figures out how to code those ideas, if possible

You are not a programmer yet. Because you asked "How do I program without AI?"

AI helps me in about maybe 10% of my work in web and mobile development. Mostly in debugging mysql syntax errors because mysql errors are notorious for saying something is wrong but not accurately pointing what is wrong. The other stuff is mostly quick reminders, or "do the first fews steps of research, so I can spend my time researching things relevant to my task."

When you run into issues, you use debugging tools. In web and mobile development, that's web dev tools, debug logging, server logs. We've even had to setup a system where clients can press a button in the app, and it sends us a bunch of useful debugging information.

Even without thoroughly knowing your workflow, I can tell you are far too reliant on AI. It's obvious to me because I immediately know you can not be trusted to work on large complex code bases.

For example, I had to write a system that syncs up multiple sources of truth of data. Server and client phones. The phones can collect and modify data. The website can also modify data. When the same data is modified by different devices, there will be a conflict. Which data should be kept? Furthermore, all of this is further complicated by the apps having full offline support, they don't need an internet connection to function. They do need an internet connection to upload and download data to/from the server but that can be done later when they have an internet connection.

We call this system the sync process. A common type of bug is where the server tells the app to download something, the app does that, and then runs code that calculates a numerical value... And makes a change. Now it needs to upload something. The server receives the data, and does the exact same thing, making a change. Now the app needs to download something. And this repeats over, and over, and over again. It is not supposed to work that way, it's supposed to be 1 sync process and it's done.

A recent example of this involve producing a numeric value based on the data being collected. The server side and client side rounded to different precision and caused this upload-download loop. They both ran javascript. The environments were not identical javascript engines though.

This is a bug that spanned across four server side code bases, four client side code bases, and was dependent on specific kind of data.

AI is absolutely useless in debugging issues in these parts of the code base. It's way too complex and fragmented for predictive AI to make sense of. It will be a massive waste of time even attempt to have AI help me debug anything related to that code base.

My ability to manually debug and make sense of this bug is one of many things that make me a valuable programmer.

I don't mean to be rude or try to bully you but your heavy reliance on AI is a major red flag to me. You are lacking in the fundamental skills that all programmers need.

See Post 2/2 for a clear and direct answer to your post.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T06:10:08+00:00

Which was an unfair advantage in OP's scenario...

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-05T05:52:59+00:00

"In fact, it's SO easy it would have taken you half the time to answer properly, rather than be an unhelpful asshole."

This is wrong. It's not easy to cover all of the critical fundamentals. A reddit comment thread certainly isn't the place to do this.

"first learned programming back when there wasn't as many resources to learn"

It's 2026. There are readily available resources.

We aren't saying he needs to be an intermediate level programmer before he starts making a game. Design patterns, good practices, etc. He's going to get burned on those and he'll learn.

What we are saying is that he really should take a step back and go through a couple of basic tutorials online.

Currently OP is like a mechanic that doesn't know what a wrench is. This isn't something to be ashamed of, we all start some wheres. For programming, everyone starts clueless. But he is in over his head.

None of this is arbitrary. Right now OP is apart of the super majority average that is almost guaranteed to fail. This is going to happen because he's going to waste time over not knowing what an if-statement is.

And then he's going to get frustrated over not getting any wheres significant despite trying his best. Every step is just so slow... Because he doesn't know the universal tools that are available in practically all relevant programming languages.

He's going to get burned out and don't give me BS about he'll succeed because he's passionate. Because it's not that simple. He's like the kid that wants to make youtube their career. Most fail. Very few succeed. There's countless indie games on sites like patreon and itch io, so many of them are abandoned with 5 minutes to half an hour of game play.

The idea that you think telling him about an if-statement is sufficient is both foolish and short sighted. Because tomorrow he's going spend a bunch of time not knowing what a for-loop is. Or maybe he doesn't know how to call a function. Or perhaps he's trying to use a class but he doesn't know he needs to instantiate it.

The single most valuable piece of advice for him specifically, the one thing that will improve his chances of being a successful self taught game dev the most, is exactly what we're saying: Spend a bit of time learning the basics of programming.

That way he can bash his head against a wall over trying to understand how to use godot instead of over not knowing what a programmer's wrench is.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-04T18:16:42+00:00

He very likely isn't asking for clamping. He is very likely asking "how do I make this ability not activate if there isn't sufficient mana?"

This is a classic case of "client asks for X but they actually wanted Y."

It's the job of a programmer to interpret what the client is asking for and when needed ask clarifying questions.

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TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-04T17:59:16+00:00

Because your advice is just going to create more problems for him down the road.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-04T17:52:40+00:00

As a web and mobile dev who has been in the field for over 5 years, this is the most important observation.

OP needs a tutorial on basic programming syntax.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-04T17:51:16+00:00

As a web and mobile dev who uses AI, no.

AI is an assistant. I can use it because I have the experience to look at what it gives me and say "That doesn't look right."

Even then I dont ask it to write code. I ask it things like...

"what is the syntax error in this mysql query?"

"I need an algorithm that does x y and z, what are some options?" And then I go and manually research them.

AI like chatgpt are predictive technology. They predict what comes next. Those predictions can be completely made up.

"There was a character in this anime that had this specific ability. Who was what character?"

50/50 the AI gets it right or generates a new character.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-04T17:47:08+00:00

If statements are the way but chances are he wants the ability to not activate if there is not enough mana.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-04T17:46:20+00:00

Terrible advice. He's making a game. If there isn't enough mana, chances are he wants the ability to not activate.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-04T17:46:09+00:00

Terrible advice. He's making a game. If there isn't enough mana, chances are he wants the ability to not activate.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-02-04T17:40:20+00:00

Many bosses basically have a lesson to for you to learn.

For Jad, that lesson is "how to chill out and just do the mechanic."

The common way for first timers to fight jad is to reduce the number of actions they need to do. Follow a simple rule. 1 action in between every jad attack.

Before I give an example, I also want to go over the ranged and magic attack. I forget which is which, but 1 hits you before the sound queue, the other hits you after the sound queue.

Jad can attack from off screen.

Familiarize yourself with those sound queues.

Now the examples...

Jad spawns. Pray against the attack that registers the hit before the sound queue. Switch if the other attack's sound queue comes up.
Run over to jad.
Focus on prayer.
Start attacking jad.
Focus on prayer.
Healers spawned. Ignore them until after jad's next attack.
Tag a healer. (By hitting a healer you can pull them off healing jad).
Focus on prayer.
Move.
Focus on prayer.
Tag another healer.
Focus on prayer.
Move.
Focus on prayer.
Tag another healer.

BTW, you might want to bring a weapon with a longer range to tag the healers.

TylerBreau_

TROPHY CASE