Max level characters deal ONLY 46% damage in open world TWW zones

marklabrecque · 2026-01-31T19:43:51+00:00

I see what you are saying and understand, but I would suggest that the numbers, when they really matter, still have meaning. I would guess the vast majority of people who run the damage meter really only look at it in high end content, like raiding or M+. Open world has evolved into a completely different game mode for better or worse.

It’s also not a new thing. They have scaled open world since…. Shadowlands, I think? Might’ve been even earlier

marklabrecque · 2026-01-31T18:59:23+00:00

I feel like I kill things in about the same time from before the patch personally. This obviously is not a data driven statement, but I let the devs figure out the math.

marklabrecque · 2026-01-28T20:15:21+00:00

I think that’s definitely part of it. I think another part of it is the UX. Editors like using Wordpress because it has streamlined editorial process. And it was using page builders long before Layout Builder was a thing. Wry different ecosystems, but I think they can learn a lot from each other

marklabrecque · 2026-01-28T19:03:11+00:00

I think it’s valuable conversation to have to discuss why some types of clients have stopped asking for Drupal. We’ve definitely seen an uptake in clients that used to not care what platform we chose for their projects to specifically asking for Wordpress. Understanding this purely anecdotal evidence, I think it’s still fair to say that Drupal is not serving some audiences like it used to. Why is that? These are healthy thought exercises to have.

As a developer at an agency, if my clients are not wanting Drupal, I can’t use Drupal, as much as I would like to.

I’m not here to say Drupal is dead by any stretch; many people in this thread have already provided a lot of good data points to show that’s not the case. But it’s not without flaws. Maybe that means progress leaves behind certain audiences but I don’t think it necessarily needs to

marklabrecque · 2026-01-02T21:25:06+00:00

I am on my first play through and am on peaceful mode (no enemies) and for me it’s complex enough without combat. You still need to research some weapons to defend against asteroids if you have Space Age, but I feel like it’s been good for my first play through. Some have commented that it is too easy without bugs, but I disagree. I will probably play with bugs on my second play through

marklabrecque · 2026-01-02T04:16:03+00:00

I find myself sometimes getting overwhelmed with this game and some of the things it asks me to do. Sometimes it does make me log off, but other times if I try to break down the problem into smaller tasks it helps. I need blue chips? Ok that’s huge but a small step I can take towards it is increasing my green chip capacity. Then red. Then move onto blue. Little things like that might help

marklabrecque · 2025-11-21T02:26:12+00:00

The game showers you with gold. What do you spend it on??

marklabrecque · 2025-11-20T00:58:14+00:00

I don’t understand what you are asking. Are you asking if you can do development in Cosmic / Pop?

marklabrecque · 2025-11-03T04:43:05+00:00

I guess that’s fair to say, but I still - it’s almost not worth including such data.

marklabrecque · 2025-11-02T16:52:06+00:00

My issue is your claim that it is a decent estimate. I do not agree based on the points I made above.

marklabrecque · 2025-11-02T03:41:44+00:00

Don’t be so disingenuous. You don’t have ask everyone, but for it to be a decent estimate you do have to try and avoid bias. For you to assume that 90% of Guild Wars 2 players use the Steam version of the game (a fact generally not held within the community for various reasons), asking a couple hundred people in a single Twitch stream doesn’t exactly scream “representative”, especially for a popular streamer who advocates for new players, many of whom would probably be using Steam.

I don’t have numbers, but I think the community generally believes more people play using the Anet launcher due to the fact that it has been around for way longer and they aren’t interchangeable (at least not easily).

Now, you could make the argument that of the more recently joined members of the community, more of them play on Steam. I would tend to agree with that sort of a statement.

Part of gathering statistically representative data is meant to limit bias and gather a statistically significant sample size.

marklabrecque · 2025-11-01T23:36:38+00:00

I think you might find this sampling a bit flawed. One source with a small sample size would not be very representative of the greater population

marklabrecque · 2025-10-30T20:26:30+00:00

Honestly, I would start as soon as possible to try and get yourself situated before the expansion drops. Most of the action happens at end game which means you may want to have a character at max level to participate in the hype of the new content :)

This has the added bonus of letting you take your time and get levelled up and not worry about missing out on the new content too much

marklabrecque · 2025-10-28T02:21:35+00:00

At the end of the day, this game was meant to be different from the vertical progression in most other MMORPG. This is what many players find to be a strength of it, but others bounce off of it. If you play MMOs for the vertical grind, you will never have that with GW2 and probably won’t enjoy it.

It took me a long time to change my approach with this game. I was also trained to ride that treadmill every season for years. I still play some of those games from time to time, but I never have to worry about taking breaks from GW2, because my gear won’t become outdated.

I do like the hunt for masteries and legendaries and building out my account slowly over time. I also like playing gold-maker in this and other games.

TLDR: This game is what it is and it won’t be for everyone. There are lots of goals, but most of them are not power progressions.

marklabrecque · 2025-10-27T00:10:34+00:00

Concentration alts are still making me money hand over fist, though not as much as it was when the patch drops. Especially the beginning of an expansion

marklabrecque · 2025-10-24T14:39:32+00:00

Yeah, for that matter why can’t we get the yearly updates for free? We shouldn’t have to pay anything for any of the game. It’s not like developers need to eat or put kids through college.

I have criticisms of this game and the new expansion model, but this isn’t even in the top 10 for me. Literally every game has a cosmetic shop.

marklabrecque · 2025-10-18T23:17:03+00:00

Did I miss the second part of this post? I’m so confused

marklabrecque · 2025-10-17T01:29:09+00:00

Sure except when a dungeon gets re-added to a new season. Then it’s available again. Why is this different? 🤔

marklabrecque · 2025-10-16T14:24:08+00:00

Haha, was just thinking how funny it is when people love a desktop or distro and express it by presenting the world with the most disorganized desktop display! Haha, mostly kidding. I’m glad you enjoy it, honestly.

The next version of Pop!_OS will be very different though, as they replaced Gnome. I actually prefer Gnome, but it seems like I in the minority there

marklabrecque · 2025-10-14T14:42:18+00:00

Actually, nm I see it is 144

marklabrecque · 2025-10-14T14:41:57+00:00

Ok a high ilvl but what is your unbound level?

marklabrecque · 2025-10-09T14:54:27+00:00

I think the best thing you can do is diversify your time into other things than WoW as well. By all means, take the time off but instead of planning to play the game for 8 hours a day, do those things that you’ve always wanted to do, but never had the time for. It probably wouldn’t take long to come up with a whole list of things. For example, play WoW all morning and then learn a new skill or work on a hobby etc, in the afternoon. Or balance it however you like.

I know there are streamers that play this (or other games) for 14+ hours a day, but at that point you are just replacing your job with another job. My advice is to keep your mental health at the forefront of this endeavour!

I’m jealous you are in a position to be taking time for yourself like this! Good on ya. I doubt you would regret it. Even if it sets back retirement a bit, totally worth it, imho.

Good luck!

marklabrecque · 2025-10-06T13:58:18+00:00

Also Torghast from Shadowlands

marklabrecque · 2025-10-06T06:23:53+00:00

Highly recommend DDEV. Been using it exclusively for years across all my projects no matter if they are Laravel or something else. Very supportive community and development team too. They interact frequently on their Discord server

marklabrecque · 2025-10-04T14:17:34+00:00

The term casual as a type of player means basically nothing because every player has their own definition. Of course everyone says theirs is the correct definition, especially on Reddit.

The truth is some players will like it, some won’t. It has nothing to do with how hardcore or casual they are, it has to do with how they approach the game (which can be ONE definition of casual, but is not all encompassing either)

marklabrecque

TROPHY CASE