Guild Wars 2: Dragon Bash Without Procrastination

I only realized it now. This has become a little series of my blog. Even though I skipped some of the in-game events of Guild Wars 2 here and there most of them have a "Without Procrastination" post already. This is the 4th one, so without further ado, let's get to it.

Dragon Bash, It's Been A While

Dragon Bash is a festival event in Guild Wars 2. While it is not completely new as it has existed in 2013, it seems to have gotten a major overhaul. We have four new attractions and three are not available. With this overhaul came a new bunch of achievements and a lot to do.^[1]

As with previous posts I'm gonna go into the achievements that need you to do things multiple times or a lot. The idea behind this is to instead of farming them, do a little every day to prevent unnecessary farming or to not be able to complete the event. This is similar to the way you prevent procrastination in real life by working a little on it even if it's just a tiny bit, as it still provides progress and in the long term you have less to do at the end and have an easier time hitting the deadline.

What Is There To Do?

Before we can get into how much we need to do every day we need to select the relevant achievements. For me, relevant achievements are those that give achievement points, as they provide a limited reward that is relatively unique. Additionally one-time achievements like "complete this adventure on gold" boil down to.. *ahem* "JUST DO IT!". With that out of the way, here's the first draft of the list of achievements I deem relevant, broken down into the annual category and an "others" category:

Annual

These can be repeated every year to get Annual Feats achievement rewards 50 achievement points each up to 1000.

• (Annual) Zhaitasty - Eat 1000 Zhaitaffy
• (Annual) Paper Dragon - Bash 150 pinatas
• (Annual) Going the Distance - Finish 15 laps of the race
• (Annual) Color the Sky - Launch 100 fireworks
• (Annual) Hologram Herder - Participate 5 times
• (Annual) Masters of the Arena - Defeat all 5 bosses
• (Annual) So Lifelike - Defeat 300 holographic minions
• (Annual) Winner's Circle - Win the moa bet 5 times

Others

These can be completed only once in a lifetime.

• Color the Sky - Use 150 fireworks
• So lifelike - Kill 500 holographs
• Hologram Herder - Participate in 10 Stampede events
• Winner's Circle - Win the moa race 10 times
• Paper Dragon - Break 300 paper dragon pinata's
• Zhaitasty - Eat 5000 Zhaitaffy
• Cheerful Ingester - Consume 3000 foods
• Burn Them All - Burn 3 effigies
• Masters of the Arena - Defeat all 5 bosses
• Help a Quaggan Out - Give 1000 Zhaitaffy to the Quaggan
• Stampede Survivor - Complete the third round of the Stampede 3 times
• Arena Slayer - Defeat all 5 bosses
• Party Commander - Do your dailies
• Annual Feats - Finish 7 annual achievements

Repetitive Achievements

It's also important that some of these achievements are repeatable giving more and more achievement points. We need to calculate that into the amount we have to do.

Achievement	AP1 per Repetition	AP1 Limit	Resulting Repetitions
Help a Quaggan Out	5	25	25 / 5 = 5
Stampede Survivor	5	25	25 / 5 = 5
Arena Slayer	5	25	25 / 5 = 5
Party Commander	10	100	100 / 10 = 10
Annual Feats	50	1000	1000 / 50 = 20

¹AP: Achievement Points

Every Day a Little: Annual Part

Let's right to it. We just need one more thing though. The duration of the event. This can also be found on the Guild Wars 2 wiki as well as on the official post. The event goes from the 25th of June to the 16th of July.^[2] That is equal to 21 days ±1 day (depending on your work or playtime). So for the following calculation, I'm gonna use 20 days, you can use replace the 20 in the following calculation with the number of days the event still has.
Small tip: If you subtract the current day from the days in the month and add one to it (= counting the rest of the days in the month) e.g. 30 - 27 = 3, then you can add the next months days to it to get how many days it is e.g. 3 + 16 = 19 => 19±1 days until the end of the event from the 27th of June.

Let's go down the list.

• (Annual) Zhaitasty: We need to eat 1000 / 20 = 50 Zhaitaffy a day.
• (Annual) Paper Dragon: We need to bash 150 / 20 = 7.5 or 7 to 8 pinatas a day  
• (Annual) Going the Distance: For this, we need to finish 15 / 21 = 0.75 laps a day. However, this is quite inefficient as we can just do 3 laps in one race because that's less annoying. That means we only need 15 / 3 = 5 races in 21 days which is 5 / 20 = 0.25. That's about one race every four days.
• (Annual) Color the Sky: This requires 100 / 20 = 5; So, 5 fireworks launched per day
• (Annual) Hologram Herder: This needs 5 / 20 = 0.25, just like the races one participation every four days.
• (Annual) Masters of the Arena: Four days like the previous one. I would recommend doing it in one go though as you may end up with bosses you don't wanna do.
• (Annual) So Lifelike: The recommended amount is at least 300 / 20.0 = 15 a day.
• (Annual) Winner's Circle: Win one bet every four days.

This is the yearly to-do list. Thus I'm gonna write it down again nice and clear. To complete Dragon Bash yearly/annual stuff you need to

• Eat 50 Zhaitaffy a day.
• Bash 7 to 8 pinatas a day.
• Complete one whole race every four days or one lap every three out of four days.
• Launch 5 fireworks per day.
• Participate in the Hologram Stampede event every four days.
• Finish all bosses in the arena once.
• Defeat 15 holograms a day.
• and win one moa race bet every four days.

Every Day a Little: The Rest

Now if you would like to finish all of the achievements this year it looks different. Let's see what the normal achievements need.

• Color the Sky: 150 / 20 = 7.5, meaning 7 to 8 fireworks need to be launched a day.
• So lifelike: 500  / 20 = 25, holograms need to be killed in a day.
• Hologram Herder: 10 / 20 = 0.5 participations a day, which is equivalent to every two days.
• Winner's Circle: Just like the Hologram Herder, every two days.
• Paper Dragon: This requires 300 / 20 = 15 pinatas to be bashed per day.
• Zhaitasty: A freaking 5000 / 20 = 250 Zhaitaffy per day needs to be consumed.
• Cheerful Ingester: As well as 3000 / 20 = 150 Dragon Bash food items.
• Burn Them All: 3 / 20 = 0.15 effigies to be burnt. That's every 6 to 7 days, but it makes more sense to do it in one go.
• Masters of the Arena:  Same as the annual. Four days like Hologram Herder (5 / 20 = 0.25). I would recommend doing it in one go though as you may end up with bosses you don't wanna do.
• Help a Quaggan Out: This requires 5 repetitions each needing 1000 Zhaitaffy. That's 5 * 1000 = 5000. So 5000 / 20 = 250 per day. Additionally to the 250 you need to eat yourself.
• Stampede Survivor: This requires 5 repetitions as well. So, 5 * 3 = 15 rounds. That's 15 / 20 = 0.75 a day. That's once every 1 to 2 days.
• Arena Slayer:  With 5 repetitions this takes 5 * 5 = 25 bosses. That's one boss every 25 / 20 = 1.25 days. So every 1 to 2 days. I advise doing this in one go as you might not get the bosses you are missing. It takes 5 / 20 = 0.25 rounds a day then. So every 4th day.
• Party Commander: Well. Just do your dailies every day. It can be repeated 10 times but requires 5 days to complete. That's 10 * 5 = 50 days. That's equivalent to 2 to 3 years.
• Annual Feats: When will Guild Wars 3 come one? Let's see. You have to repeat this 20 times and you can only do it once a year... hmmm... in 20 years? We'll see.

Since these are one time achievements and probably only hardcore achievement hunters or players will aim to complete these this year I'm not gonna summarize these. Especially since the blog post is already long enough. Which means. I'm out. Cya! :D

^[1] https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon_Bash

^[2] https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/dragon-bash-returns-next-week/

Guild Wars 2: Ultra Shiny Like a Skritt - What Did It Cost?

The perfect title for every Skritt fan. Okay for collectors, achievement hunters and completionists too, or people who want animated weapons that were made out of litter shinies. However, as the popular Thanos meme quotes so well: "What did it cost?"

Not Everything

Luckily for us, it doesn't cost everything, but what does it cost exactly? Well, there are five weapons. The recipes follow a pretty simple schematic. First, you craft the shiny weapon and then you craft the ultra shiny weapon. Both recipes work through the mystic forge. For the shiny weapons you will need:

• 3x Elder Wood Log
• 1x Quartz Crystal
• 3x Condensed Ley-Line Essence of one certain color
• 3x Condensed Ley-Line Essence of a different certain color

The color of the Condensed Ley-Line Essences defines which type of weapon you get. More about that later. First, this is what you need for the ultra shiny weapon:

• 1x The specific shiny weapon
• 1x Charged Core
• 3x Condensed Ley-Line Essence of one certain color
• 3x Condensed Ley-Line Essence of a different certain color

As you can see from a material cost point aside from the Condensed Ley-Line Essence and the Charged Core these are standard materials. Maybe you need to farm a little bit of Quartz Crystals depending on whether you get them through your home instance or occasionally mined them on one of the specific maps that have these (e.g. Dry Top).

We can fuse these two recipes, build the union or inherit the one from the other. Whichever you prefer in the end the result should be:

• 3x Elder Wood Log
• 1x Quartz Crystal
• 1x Charged Core
• 6x Condensed Ley-Line Essence of one certain color
• 6x Condensed Ley-Line Essence of a different certain color

This is needed five times for each weapon but before we do that, let's see which Condensed Ley-Line Essences we need.

Condensed Ley-Line Essences

Looking through the Guild Wars 2 official wiki^[1] gives us a quick breakdown on which Condensed Ley-Line Essence is needed for which weapon (demonstrated by the following table).

Weapon/Essence	Crimson	Saffron	Azure	Emerald
Rifle	X			X
Pistol		X	X
Short Bow			X	X
Staff	X	X
Torch	X		X

It's every permutation except Saffron and Emerald. (either they got bored, ran out of time, the artists were striking or they can't do math :P) By looking at the amount of X's vertically we can multiply that number with how many we need per weapon to get the total amount we need.

• Crimson: 3 * 6 = 18
• Saffron: 2 * 6 = 12
• Azure: 3 * 6 = 18
• Emerald: 2 * 6 = 12

Before the 25th of June, you had to kill at least 60 bosses for these. Unfortunately, the exact drop rate on every single boss could not be found out even though there was noticeably a pattern since certain bosses favored or some probably guaranteed a certain color.

Screenshot of the Preview of a Djinn Energy Cluster
 In-Game

Now they no longer drop since the Destabilizing Magic event ended. They're still available in the game though. There are primarily two ways to get them. One way is to buy the Djinn Energy Cluster from the Trading Post. At the time of writing this post, they're worth 51 silver and 56 copper. Unfortunately, their price will most likely increase. These used to drop from the world bosses additionally to the Condensed Ley-Line Essences which could've been mined. They can still be bought from the raiding vendor by using the Condensed Ley-Line Essences. The Condensed Ley-Line Essences are in the Uncommon tier of the Djinn Energy Cluster, which is even less efficient (could be worse though). 

The alternative would be to buy it from the raid vendor.

at the raid vendor, it costs 10 Gaeting Crystals and 20 silver. Aside from the Gaeting Crystals, which are capped at 150 per week. It's a lot cheaper than the Djinn Energy Cluster, which does not guarantee a drop.

For Such A Shiny Title...

Summing everything up we need the following to finish the collection.

• 3 * 5 = 15; 15x Elder Wood Log
• 1 * 5 = 5; 5x Quartz Crystal
• 1 * 5 = 5; 5x Charged Core
• 18x Crimson Condensed Ley-Line Essences
• 12x Saffron Condensed Ley-Line Essences
• 18x Azure Condensed Ley-Line Essences
• 12x Emerald Condensed Ley-Line Essences

If you decide to buy these Ley-Line Essences from the raid vendor. It would cost 10 * 60 = 600 Gaeting crystals (600 / 150 = 4 weeks of raiding) and 20 * 60 = 1200 silver, a.k.a. 12 gold.

At this point, it's also interesting whether you can make money out of the Djinn Energy Cluster. 

Well, I'll leave that up to you. Anyways that's it for this post. The Dragon Bash Festival post will come tomorrow or on Friday, depending on whether or not I hit the project deadline for the university project. Happy farming.. or.. something!

^[1] https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shiny_weapons

Guide to New Raid Bosses

Quite a long title, huh? Well, I've been working mostly on my games homework from university and I'm kinda sick of it right now, haha. xD Anyways, lately I've been asked by a person how we find out so fast on how bosses work so I want to give the people who have no idea some tips.

Brute Force Way

Before I give you some tips let's go most easily: brute force. It basically means, doesn't think too much about keep trying and every time your group wipes try to figure out why and solve the issues at hand. Of course, if you keep this up at some point you survive long enough to kill the boss. Bam, you made it! This doesn't sound too efficient though.

The Basics

Most of the bosses in raids, regardless of the game - yes, you heard right in all games - basically, work with the same mechanics. I mean think about what a game designer can do in a game. Since nearly all MMORPGs work with similar systems like buffs, debuffs, stuns, stun breaks, healing, tanking, collecting, moving and more. Additionally, they inspire each other. Well, since the mechanics reappear throughout different games but mechanics also usually don't change in the game itself and raids are build using the tools already in the game what you have will mostly suit what is needed for a boss.

Just check out the abilities you have and what they do:

• "Deals damage"
• "Stuns the enemy"
• "Breaks a stun"
• "Heals allies"
• "Taunts the enemy"
• "Leaps"
• "Teleports"
• etc.

Boss fights are not designed to be impossible. They're basically a combination of challenge and puzzle. Solve the puzzle, overcome the challenge and they're dead. So, familiarize yourself with bosses, the more you see the easier it becomes for you to figure things out. Especially if you know your class or even other classes. The more you know about what the players can do the more easy it becomes for you to figure out what the developers intended. Know the limits within which you have to work!

Survive, Deal Damage, But Most Important Analyze

The hardest part next to solving the puzzle is the ability to analyze the fight while still doing your job. The less stressful a boss is the easier this is. Basically what you want to look out is the mechanics of the boss. Here you want to answer the following questions:

Buffs & Debuffs

•  Does he have buffs? Does the group have debuffs?
•  Do the boss or the group get these during the fight?
• Where do they come from? What do they do*? 

* Note: It is often wise to post buffs and debuffs to chat or screenshot them in the old-fashioned way to discuss after the try.

Attacks

• What can the boss do? When does he do what?
• Is it time-based? Is it health based? (at 75% or 66%.)*
• Which attack hurts how much?
• Does he have mechanics that instantly kill?
• Are there scripted events? What happens?
• Does he have an attack pattern?

* Note: Game developers love to use these numbers like every 5% every 10% every 20% every 25% or every 33%.

Map Awareness

• Does the map mark something? Does it mark something throughout the fight?
• What symbol is used? What could it mean?

Surroundings

• What's in the boss arena? What is on the ground?
• Is there a pattern matching the fight?
• Are there AoE fields? Does the arena change?*
• Are there minions or adds spawning? Are they bound to an important mechanic?
• Are there visual effects? What do they do?
• Are there sound effects? Where do they come from? What do they mean? Are they important?

* Note: Developers seem to love to destroy the platform or decrease the area the player works with.

Boss Itself

• Is the boss attackable? Is there something that needs to be done first?
• How does aggro work? Does he need CC? When does he need CC? 
• What happens if you don't CC?
• What works/doesn't work well on him?

Grouping

• How many people need to do what?

Achievements

• What achievements are there? What happens if you fail them*?

* Note: Sometimes failing an achievement triggers mechanics that deal with group damage or do otherwise bad things.

Answering these questions together in your group should give you a good idea about the encounter and boost your speed of killing it. I mean you can always leave this to other people but.. hey. Now you have a good idea of how to do it yourself for the next boss you come across or if you wanna faster with your group on a new boss without waiting for a guide.

While this sounds like the end of the post I've got one more thing for you.

Good Game Design & Boss Mechanics

In a game with good game design coming across a new mechanic in a boss fight that hasn't been explained yet often has an explanation of the mechanic beforehand. In the best case, you will have the mechanic or a similar mechanic be played before the boss with some miniboss or enemy that shares this. It could also be possible that the players are told this by an NPC or have to read it which is sloppy, but at least it's explained.

From a game design perspective, you don't want your players to go into a fight completely empty-handed. You always want to at least hint to the solution so that it is technically possible to figure out the fight first try. (Which is rarely the case).

Just look out on whether or not you've seen similar mechanics somewhere else.

There You Go: A Guide to New Raid Bosses

This all should be enough to get you started on having an easier time learning new raid bosses. I'm actually gonna create a quick google form for one simple question. Just wanna know if you'd be interested in me giving examples for this or actually explaining primarily WildStar and Guild Wars 2 raid bosses from a mechanics and/or player guide perspective.

So there you go: >> Towards the questionnaire!