Sithicus

I was really sorry to hear you died the other day :'(

I suppose I don't have many things I'm that proud of in GW2, but my proudest gaming achievement to date is easily this gem from Pillars of Eternity... Triple Crown SOLO involves completing the game on Expert Mode (turns off all ease of use options, makes the game more immersive and unpredictable), Path of the Damned (anyone remember Icewind Dale 2's Heart of Fury mode?) which makes all enemies significantly stronger, while also spawning much more enemies, then Trial of Iron, where you have a single save game for the entire playthrough, which is deleted if you die; and then ALL of this without taking any party members throughout the game/ Poured ma soul into this Less than 0.1% of people who played it have got this, it's easily my best gaming achievement

That's one sweet pup

I like how this ended up being like one of those "Spot the difference" things, where you compare two similar pictures.

Dry Top is the first zone in the Maguuma Wastes. After the destruction of the Zephyr Sanctum, the Zephyrites crash landed there and are in a constant struggle for survival against the harsh environment and plenty of Inquest. The Dry Top meta event cycles every hour on the hour. There is a 40 minute Crash Site phase, and a 20 minute Sandstorm phase, at the beginning of each hour the meta (and Favour Tier) reset, and the Crash Site begins anew at Tier 1. What is "Tier 6"? When players complete events during the Crash Site phase, it increases the Favour of the Zephyrites and once enough Favour has been earned, the next Tier is unlocked up to a maximum of Tier 6. Completing more events unlocks higher tiers of Favour, up to a maximum of Tier 6. Players have 40 minutes to complete as many events as possible during the Crash Site phase, because at 40 minutes past the hour the Sandstorm begins. During the Sandstorm Favour is locked, Buried Locked Chests appear, and a new set of events will spawn. Ok so completing events increases Favour, which increases Tiers, but what does any of that actually mean? The currency accepted by Dry Top vendors is Geodes, and completing an event rewards an amount of Geodes, the higher the tier, the higher the number of Geodes you receive as follow: Crash Site: 1 + 1*Favour Tier Geodes (e.g. Tier 3 rewards 4 Geodes) Sandstorm: 2 + 2*Favour Tier Geodes (e.g. Tier 6 rewards 14 Geodes) In addition to receiving more Geodes, merchants offer a higher discount the higher the Favour Tier achieved. There is no constant formula for this, each item has differing discounts depending on what it is, other items remains the same price, and other items cannot be purchased unless a minimum of Tier 3 is reached during the Crash Site phase. A list of items and their discounts at different tiers can be seen here. How do you get to Tier 6? This is where we get down to the nitty gritty of things. In short, to get to Tier 6 the map has to complete almost every event that spawns on the map, as quickly as possible. This takes some coordination to achieve, because timing is very important, as well as knowing where to be. Before going further, the imagine below is an annotated map of Dry Top. The events inside coloured bubbles are the Crash Site events, and the events with no coloured bubble are the Sandstorm events. A few events have a * next to them, this indicates that an event can award bonus Favour if certain conditions are achieved (this is indicated on the event dialogue box). The best way I have found for reaching Tier 6 is to use 3 different teams of people, the East Team, West Team and Special Team. All of these teams can now be nested into a single Squad thanks to being able to assign sub-teams within the squad. Each team targets specific events, I made a simple spreadsheet to highlight the events that each team should pursue at what time, you can see it here. This resource is mostly for the Special Team, because East and West follow a set cycle of events, whereas the Special Team has to tackle events that fall off these cycles, all over the map. Crash Site Phase XX:00 to XX:40 East Team The Event cycle for the East Team is as follows: Race* -> Moa -> Queen (Nochtli) -> South Mine -> Town -> North Mine | Repeat until South Mine on the Third Cycle. This cycle can be completed 2 and a half times roughly before the Sandstorm arrives. The East team requires the most people, because the Race, South Mine and North Mine events have objectives that require a larger number of people to be completed quickly, and North Mine has a bonus which is difficult to achieve especially in a timely manner; as such, this is the team in which the Commander runs with. West Team The West Team has a short cycle which comprises as follows: Skritt Supplies -> Inquest Suit | Repeat until the end of the third Skritt Supplies. However there is another cycle on West which requires 1 - 2 people maximum. This is as follows: Escort Rustbucket -> Collect Beetles -> Inquest Suit | Repeat until the third Collect Beetles. The reason the second cycle requires 1 - 2 people is because the events scale quite poorly. With more than 3 people, these events can start spawning Elite mobs, which makes the whole thing take longer, and in a Tier 6 run, time is of the essence. Once the Collect Beetles event is finished, the person(s) doing the second cycle can rejoin everyone else for the Inquest Suit event. Special Team The special team has a very important job in a Tier 6 run, and that is completing events that fall off the East and West cycles. Special Team should have around 7 or 8 people, but at least 5 at minimum. The Special Team does not move together, but individually or in pairs, to take out events across the map (NOTE: it is highly recommended that you bring a character with all Dry Top waypoints for maximum maneuverability). The list of events to be completed by Special Team, and the times they occur can be seen in the spreadsheet, and their locations can be seen on the map above (also present in the spreadsheet). As you can see in the Spreadsheet, events spawn every 5 minutes, and events of the same colour spawn at the same time, for example at the beginning of the Crash Site phase, Special Team has Tendril A*, Tendril B*, Crash Survivors and Shaman to deal with. The following events should be prioritized: Tendril A* Tendril B* Basket* These events are a priority because of the bonus Favour available. To achieve the bonuses for Tendrils A and B, kill the small vines before the big vine. For Basket, ensure the Inquest steal no supplies from the Basket. The number of baskets increases with the number of people present, so again only 1 or 2 people, which makes Special Team ideal. As mentioned previously, Special Team is less cyclic than East or West, and requires people to react to what events are up at the time. It is a good idea to coordinate in Party Chat so you can split up between events effectively. I realize Special Team sounds daunting for people who have not done it before, but I would encourage you to try it out, as long as there is at least 1 person who is very familiar with Special Team, they will be able to help you get used to it. So this covers the Crash Site phase... Sandstorm Phase XX:40 - (XX+1):00 During the sandstorm, there is only one team, everybody follows the Commander. The event cycle is as follows: Mite Farm -> Haze -> Dev Queen (+Burglar) -> Sand Giant -> Mite Farm -> Haze -> Small Dust -> Skritt Queen -> Big Dust -> Giant Beetle The main reason everyone should follow the tag here is so everyone receives maximum credit for the maximum number of events, we ask people not to activate any events while the rest of the squad is not there (for example the squad doesn't arrive at Skritt Queen until a little while after she spawns), this extends to Skritt Burglar too (which can sometimes be found near the Devourer Queen) so if you happen to see a random Chest, call it out . After the Giant Beetle there is very little time left in the Sandstorm, so run to the vendor quickly! There is a trick however, the items the merchant displays depends on the Tier active when you opened the window, so even after the Tier 6 sandstorm expires, as long as the merchant window is open, you can still purchase items at the Tier 6 discount. Rare Event Spawns There are 5 events each called "Slay the rare creature" followed by the name of said creature, they are Bloodscale, Dune Soarer, Grit, Sand Savage, and Sol Eater. These events spawn only once every 12 hours, within a 6 hour window, so you don't see them very often. Once they spawn, you have 15 minutes to kill them, whether players find them or not. I've seen these pop up a few times while running T6 runs, but to describe them as Rare is pretty spot on! They recently updated rare spawns, I believe that one will now spawn 5 minutes into each Sandstorm, so keep an eye out! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok hopefully I have covered everything here, I wrote this in a single pass so there's every chance I missed something. Please comment if anything is unclear, or if I have missed anything. I have also seen groups do the events in a slightly different order during Crash Site, so I probably won't add that in, just to avoid confusion Chat Codes for Map Chat Commanding! Original post here, credit to reddit user Drant! :00 Supplies@[&BJcHAAA=] Rustbucket@[&BJYHAAA=] TendrilW@[&BIYHAAA=] Shaman@[&BIsHAAA=] Victims@[&BIwHAAA=] Tootsie@[&BHYHAAA=] Crystals@[&BHIHAAA=] TendrilSE@[&BHMHAAA=] :05 Beetles@[&BJYHAAA=] Bridge@[&BIkHAAA=] Experiment@[&BIwHAAA=] Golem@[&BIoHAAA=] Nochtli@[&BHkHAAA=] COLOCAL@[&BHwHAAA=] Serene@[&BHQHAAA=] MineE@[&BHsHAAA=] :10 Suit@[&BJMHAAA=] Leyline@[&BIMHAAA=] Town@[&BH4HAAA=] Basket@[&BHMHAAA=] MineNE@[&BH0HAAA=] :15 Supplies@[&BJcHAAA=] Rustbucket@[&BJYHAAA=] TendrilW@[&BIYHAAA=] Shaman@[&BIsHAAA=] Victims@[&BIwHAAA=] Tootsie@[&BHYHAAA=] Crystals@[&BHIHAAA=] TendrilSE@[&BHMHAAA=] :20 Beetles@[&BJYHAAA=] Bridge@[&BIkHAAA=] Experiment@[&BIwHAAA=] Golem@[&BIoHAAA=] Nochtli@[&BHkHAAA=] COLOCAL@[&BHwHAAA=] Serene@[&BHQHAAA=] MineE@[&BHsHAAA=] :25 Suit@[&BJMHAAA=] Leyline@[&BIMHAAA=] Town@[&BH4HAAA=] Basket@[&BHMHAAA=] MineNE@[&BH0HAAA=] :30 Supplies@[&BJcHAAA=] Rustbucket@[&BJYHAAA=] TendrilW@[&BIYHAAA=] Shaman@[&BIsHAAA=] Victims@[&BIwHAAA=] Tootsie@[&BHYHAAA=] Crystals@[&BHIHAAA=] TendrilSE@[&BHMHAAA=] :35 Beetles@[&BJYHAAA=] Bridge@[&BIkHAAA=] Experiment@[&BIwHAAA=] Golem@[&BIoHAAA=] Nochtli@[&BHkHAAA=] COLOCAL@[&BHwHAAA=] Serene@[&BHQHAAA=] MineE@[&BHsHAAA=] :40 SANDSTORM: Mite Farm -> Haze -> Dev Queen (+Burglar) -> Rare -> Sand Giant -> Mite Farm -> Haze -> Small Dust -> Skritt Queen -> Big Dust -> Giant Beetle Sandstorm includes a rare somewhere, 4 different spots, you might have to wing it depending on where it spawns! Hybrid TS/Mapchat Codes These codes are intended for when you have some folks on Teamspeak who can follow you around on East, and also some people taking care of West, so that other players in the map who aren't on TS can roam and complete some solo events Please help us reach Tier 6 by completing these events! :00 TendrilW@[&BIYHAAA=] Shaman@[&BIsHAAA=] Victims@[&BIwHAAA=] TendrilSE@[&BHMHAAA=] Please help us reach Tier 6 by completing these events! :05 Bridge@[&BIkHAAA=] Experiment@[&BIwHAAA=] Golem@[&BIoHAAA=] Nochtli@[&BHkHAAA=] Serene@[&BHQHAAA=] Please help us reach Tier 6 by completing these events! :10 Leyline@[&BIMHAAA=] Basket@[&BHMHAAA=] Please help us reach Tier 6 by completing these events! :15 TendrilW@[&BIYHAAA=] Shaman@[&BIsHAAA=] Victims@[&BIwHAAA=] TendrilSE@[&BHMHAAA=] Please help us reach Tier 6 by completing these events! :20 Bridge@[&BIkHAAA=] Experiment@[&BIwHAAA=] Golem@[&BIoHAAA=] Nochtli@[&BHkHAAA=] Serene@[&BHQHAAA=] Please help us reach Tier 6 by completing these events! :25 Leyline@[&BIMHAAA=] Basket@[&BHMHAAA=] Please help us reach Tier 6 by completing these events! :30 TendrilW@[&BIYHAAA=] Shaman@[&BIsHAAA=] Victims@[&BIwHAAA=] TendrilSE@[&BHMHAAA=] Please help us reach Tier 6 by completing these events! :35 Bridge@[&BIkHAAA=] Experiment@[&BIwHAAA=] Golem@[&BIoHAAA=] Nochtli@[&BHkHAAA=] Serene@[&BHQHAAA=] :40 SANDSTORM: Mite Farm -> Haze -> Dev Queen (+Burglar) -> Rare -> Sand Giant -> Mite Farm -> Haze -> Small Dust -> Skritt Queen -> Big Dust -> Giant Beetle

Hi Ani! I used to play HoN too yay

Hmm, is there any chance this is a really old screenshot? Just looking at the Daily Quests for example, those are no longer in there, as well as things like only Blue tags on the mini map, and the absence of HoT specializations in the party, I think this may be a view into the past I'm afraid.

Really into Soulful House most of the time, will edit when I figure out how to put the video thing into the post. EDIT: holy damn that IS magic

Material prices are reliably stable though, so it's an entirely fair assumption most of the time. Thanks for sharing Silver, really good resource for everyone

Sounds like a great idea. We're well up for putting this kind of thing on the schedule, that was the reason we put Shatterer on there, mainly for achieves

When I first started using Reshade, I turned on one of the "gimmick" settings called Godrays, and, well Happened to be standing in such a spot to receive an extreme close up of Shadow Behe's smelly breath And this, I just don't even know.

Oh man I love all these animals, this thread is guarenteed to brighten anyone's day ? Anyway, I have moar pix. These are the cats I had ever since I was a small child. We all grew up together. The brown/ginger/black one is Tiger Lily (Tiger for short) and the grey stripey one is Orry. Later when we got Rupert and Milo, they became friends with Milo. I had Tiger and Orry since I was 4, they were kittens and they lived until almost 19 years each... ...And they are still together in my mum's garden.

Steam: Sithicus Battle.net: Sithicus#2408 Is it worth also adding the Open Community Steam Group to the original post? ADDED

I LOVE ANIMALS! I don't have any because my flat doesn't allow animals, but here are pictures of my Sister's dogs (Rupert the Golden Retriever and Carmen the Chinese Crested, she is the small black and white dog), my Mum's dog (Milo the Black Labrador), and my brother's Cats (Doris is the blue one, and Teddy is the apricot one).

I bought Don't Starve Together recently on recommendations from others, so I'd be really interested in playing it with other people in OC

Bobblehead Wurm just... yeah

To some, I am a bearded disaster, to others I am the Naked Man, but to others still, I'm just El Tigre; and in case you didn't know it yet, I validate my existence through pointless nicknames. I've been with the Open Community for a few months now, I recently got my full commander tag so I command lots of events yaaaay. Other than that I have been known to go to work from time to time, on a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. I am passionate about sustainability, I think we can save the world if we're smart about the way we use technology and recycle our materials. My PhD entails the recycling of Aerospace grade Carbon Fibre Composite materials, I am currently funded by Boeing. Carbon Fibre is super expensive to make, but only a few organizations (me included) have found a way to recycle it effectively, and doing so is much cheaper, yay! I am also very passionate about Feminism, because I think it's something that a lot of men don't (by default) appreciate, but I've come to learn how very important it is, together we can dismantle patriarchy I usually play Warrior in GW2, so you'll usually see me as that if I'm Commanding. What else... I love animals, all of them, cats and dogs espesh. Words have run out, seeya around.