Pokemon X and Y will be celebrating its 10th anniversary soon. With this in mind and more support for the Generation 6 games popping up, I felt it was time to look back at the game’s most defining feature: Mega Evolution.
Mega Evolution continues to be one of the most requested features to return to the Pokemon series. Despite many different attempts in other generations to introduce newer and better mechanics, fans continue to ask for Megas. It's easy to see why too. The ability to transform with buffed stats, a better ability, and a fresh new look would make any Pokemon exciting to use again.
While Mega Evolution is viewed favorably, it may not be as good as fans remember. I’m hoping to explore its shortcomings along with a few ideas on how to fix it. I do lean into a competitive perspective, but many points can still be applied to casual story playthroughs. With that said, here are 15 reasons that I believe made Mega Evolution a weak mechanic.

1. Not all Pokemon can use Mega Evolution
2. The Opportunity Cost with a Weaker Mega Evolution
3. Only One Mega Evolution per Battle
4. The Base Forms were Outclassed
5. Blocked New Evolutions
6. Increase of 100 BST
7. Mega Stones and Held Items
8. Dependence on Abilities
9. The Template for Megas was too Strict
10. Multiple Mega Forms were Rare
11. Min/Max Playstyle
12. No Counterplay
13. Team Building
14. No Risk to Activate
15. Cannot Transform Back

Not all Pokemon can use Mega Evolution

Thanks to the power of hindsight, it is more clear what a problem this was for Mega Evolution, seeing as all future generational gimmicks have avoided the issue. The only Pokemon that could use Mega Evolution were those that were given a Mega form. If your favorite Pokemon did not have a Mega form, it simply could not engage with the mechanic. Other than giving every fully evolved Pokemon a Mega form, I do not see an easy way out of this problem.

The Opportunity Cost of a Weaker Mega Evolution

Competitive play will always seek out the most optimal strategies. Not all Megas need to be perfectly balanced amongst each other, as some are bound to be stronger than others. But the variance in power levels was too much. Mega Evolution was meant to put a spotlight on the Pokemon that received these forms. But when it came to competitive play, only a handful actually stayed relevant. So long as Mega Evolution is limited to once per battle, this cannot be solved.

Only One Mega Evolution per Battle

The above point was exacerbated by the fact that you can only use Mega Evolution once per battle. Weaker Mega Evolutions still saw little usage because the stronger Megas took the one and only mega slot on the team. Even if one of these weaker Megas was fun or interesting, if it could not keep up with the stronger picks, it would not be picked at all. Allowing for multiple weaker Megas in the same battle, or a single strong Mega, would give the weaker Pokemon a better chance at that coveted team spot.

The Base Forms were Outclassed

This may come off as a weird argument. Because of course the Pokemon should become stronger after it Mega Evolves. But this may not be for the best in many cases. If you see a Kangaskhan on your opponent’s team, you can count on it to Mega Evolve. Personally, Megas were at their most interesting when the base form was on a similar level to the Mega.

Blocked New Evolutions

A transformation that was strictly better than the form a Pokemon originally took? That sounds like a normal evolution too! Many of the Pokemon that received Mega Evolutions could have been better served with a normal evolution instead. These evolutions would stand the test of time better and not be cut along with Mega Evolution itself.

Increase of 100 BST

Upon Mega Evolving, every Pokemon saw an increase of 100 points to their base stat total. Pokemon like Garchomp got creative by lowering some stats to further heighten others, but it still resulted in a 100 point increase in the end. This treatment is equal, but not fair. Many felt Mega Evolution should have been used to buff up weaker Pokemon to keep up with the modern meta. But this universal BST increase did not reduce that gap at all due to too many strong Pokemon also receiving Megas. Catering the BST increase to each Pokemon would have been a better, though more involved approach.

Mega Stones and Held Items

Mega Stones were another universal trait of Mega Evolution (except Mega Rayquaza lol), being required as the held item to Mega Evolve at all. While not a fundamentally flawed idea, this choice ultimately hindered creative builds by denying the use of other battle items on your Mega. Instead, weaker Megas could have different requirements to Mega Evolve, such as a wide variety of items, if any item is required at all. Again, catering the held item requirement to each Mega Evolution would be a better approach.

Dependence on Abilities

While it's great to see weaker Pokemon buffed with a powerful ability, this design approach made the quality of a Mega depend on their ability. Abilities like Tough Claws, Huge Power, or Adaptability were commonly picked for Megas and all had a similar theme of increasing the Pokemon’s damage output. Because Mega’s are locked into this one and only ability upon transforming, they are often left with only a single viable playstyle that takes advantage of their ability. Access to more abilities for Mega forms with a wider variety of abilities would alleviate this issue.

The Template for Megas was too Strict

All of the inherent traits of Mega Evolution were too strict. The 100 BST increase, forced to hold a Mega stone, the new ability, and limiting battles to just 1 Mega, were all too restrictive to be universally applied. Some Pokemon could have evolved with other held items. The ability of the base form could have influenced the ability of the Mega. Some Pokemon that were already strong did not need the same 100 BST increase that weaker Pokemon got. Easing up on these rules would make Megas feel more fresh and give more breathing room for creative designs in the future.

Multiple Mega Forms were Rare

While every other Pokemon received just 1 Mega form, Charizard and Mewtwo both received an X and Y form. This system is brilliant and could be used to fix many of the other issues listed above. Different forms could have different BST increases, different abilities, or even different held item requirements. This would make Megas less predictable and more exciting to see in battle. Without a doubt though, creating 2 Mega forms for the same Pokemon would be more work than creating just 1. Even if visually the 2 forms were identical, I believe this addition would be worth it.

Min/Max Playstyle

Often thanks to the chosen ability for a Mega, most Mega evolutions had very narrow, but very powerful options. Abilities like Mega Launcher funneled players into using a very limited pool of moves to take full advantage of this ability. Each Mega seems to have an intended play style. An extreme and powerful style, but also predictable and boring. An X and Y form for each Mega could have given each Pokemon more options to adapt the player’s needs, as well as relieve the pressure to min/max every Mega into a certain play style.

No Counterplay

Mega Evolution is often looked at through the perspective of the user. But how does one approach it differently when their opponent uses it? Simply put, a Mega Evolved Pokemon is approached the same way as any other Pokemon. Any strategy used to counter your opponent’s use of Mega Evolution could be equally applied to a normal Pokemon. Unless Mega Evolution fundamentally changes with new drawbacks or activation requirements, I do not see a clear fix.

Team Building

Building your team is no simple task, especially for competitive battling. Mega Evolution requires consideration in this phase as well, because you cannot Mega Evolve without equipping a Mega Stone before a battle begins. Sacrificing a held item is not a small ask, so the choice of who can utilize Mega Evolution on your team is crucial. Because the stakes are so high before the battle even begins, the need to plan your Mega before battling only exacerbates the opportunity cost of using a weaker Mega. When in doubt, players will of course plan to use the most powerful Mega, rather than risk a weaker one. A better system would be more flexible and open to improvisation mid battle. Players could still approach a battle with a particular Mega in mind, but be allowed to change their mind depending on the flow of battle.

No Risk to Activate

Other than the preparations required before a battle even begins, there is effectively no drawback to Mega Evolving. With no cost or risk to activate, players almost always would Mega Evolve immediately after sending out their Pokemon. A Dynamax like approach limiting Megas to only 3 turns could have drastically changed the mechanic, for better or worse. But this 3 turn limit adds an extra layer of depth that Megas are missing. The will to stall out your opponent’s Mega or the risk that comes with timing your own may be the push and pull needed to make the act of Mega Evolution more interesting.

Cannot Transform Back

Mega Evolution is unique from regular evolutions because it is only temporary. But this temporary status is never felt in battle, as you only transform back once the battle ends. The inability to revert back to the base form silently hurts Mega Evolution. Transforming back to the original form, intentionally or not, makes for a more dynamic mechanic as well as selling the temporary aspect of Mega Evolution. Due to many Megas being clearly superior to their base forms, this would be a negative for most Pokemon. Others could take advantage of the mechanic, alternating between different abilities. Or maybe even tagging out one Mega to instead Mega Evolve another.

Conclusion

Leading up to its release in Pokemon X and Y, Mega Evolution was an exciting idea to freshen up the stale Pokemon formula. Though ultimately removed in Pokemon Sword and Shield, many fans still want to see Mega Evolution brought back to the main series game. But after considering all the shortcomings of Mega Evolution, I find it has too many problems to warrant a return.
This topic is complex and my word is by no means final. This is also not a dismissal of the shortcomings of other battle mechanics. Mega Evolution is clearly still very loved by the community and that is not without reason. I hope that keeping both the good and bad in mind can lead to a productive discussion on the quality of Mega Evolution.

Hello everyone, Have some items up for trade
All the buyouts for the selected items are just because of the rules.
I am open to discussing trades on Steam or Discord: Ab1r#1680 , feel free to add me there to discuss.
Some of the tradeable items are listed as follows:
TradeLink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=201510509&token=5HbDjuiH
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Item Condition Float B/O
★ Stiletto Knife Damascus Steel MW 0.10 360$
★ Gut Knife Doppler Phase-2 FN 0.03 218$
★ Gut Knife Lore FT 0.27 210$
★ Ursus Knife Blue Steel MW 0.13 206$
★ Falchion Knife Autotronic FT 0.16 203$
★ Gut Knife Doppler Phase-3 FN 195$
★ Moto Gloves Blood Pressure FT 0.37 187$
★ Shadow Daggers Slaughter MW 0.11 182$
★ Survival Knife Night Stripe MW 0.13 170$
★ Ursus Knife Night Stripe FT 0.34 157$
★ Survival Knife Stained FT 0.33 154$
★ Falchion Knife Freehand BS 0.45 140$
★ Survival Knife Blue Steel WW 0.44 139$
★ Moto Gloves Cool Mint BS 0.75 136$
★ Bowie Knife Bright Water BS 0.47 127$
★ Ursus Knife Urban Masked BS 0.71 126$
★ Huntsman Knife Rust Coat BS 0.53 120$
★ Navaja Knife Crimson Web WW 0.39 113$
★ Gut Knife Ultraviolet FT 0.16 111$
★ Gut Knife Stained FT 0.20 108$
★ Gut Knife Scorched FT 0.23 96$
★ Driver Gloves Rezan the Red WW 0.38 78$
★ Hand Wraps Desert Shamagh BS 0.48 66$
★ Hand Wraps Duct Tape BS 0.65 65$
★ Hand Wraps Constrictor BS 0.45 64$
★ Hydra Gloves Emerald FT 0.30 63$
★ Hydra Gloves Mangrove FT 0.37 52$
AWP Wildfire FN 0.06 168$
M4A1-S Golden Coil MW 0.14 83$
UMP-45 Crime Scene FN 0.06 66$
USP-S Printstream FT 0.36 59$
M4A1-S Golden Coil FT 0.35 47$
ST AK-47 Redline FT 0.30 47$
M4A4 The Emperor MW 0.09 46$
ST M4A4 In Living Color MW 0.07 42$
M4A4 Neo-Noir FN 0.05 35$
AWP Hyper Beast FT 0.22 34$
Sir Bloody Darryl Royale The Professionals 21$
AK-47 Redline FT 0.27 19$
Glock-18 Bullet Queen MW 0.13 17$
P250 See Ya Later FN 0.06 12$
& more
Some prices might be outdated.
Note: I have new items coming and going daily and everything is not included in this list but everything is up for trade just send an offer!
TradeLink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=201510509&token=5HbDjuiH

Hey there. We're in England.
My partner and I left a residential tenancy December last year - the place was electrically dangerous. We lived in the property for 2-3 years. The property had many electrical faults and the electrics blew every couple of months to some problem or another (One time the fridge they left us started tripping fuses, another time a random socket upstairs was blowing fuses, at one point we realised the whole house was on a single circuit and had to be fully rewired. Shower started blowing fuses at one point.) We were working on finding another place to live at the time and when we had no heating during that big cold snap and some wires behind a blanking plate started sparking badly enough to melt the connector blocks, we called it quits. We sent an email advising we were leaving 12/12/22 and would give vacant possession as soon as possible.
We only ever dealt with the lettings agent - never with the landlord. Lettings agent did their best to deny the electrics were in a bad way. When we vacated the house, it was a difficult time and the house was left messy and definitely in need of an end of tenancy clean. Nothing was damaged by us. Some light sockets and plugs didn't work, but that was a long standing issue that we raised with the agent several times. Some furniture and black bags would need removing. We informed the agency of this and offered them our full deposit (£825) to cover it. We just wanted out. The house wasn't damaged, nothing unsavoury or unsafe like food was left as we cleared and cleaned as much as we could despite being homeless and crashing at work.
The agent on behalf of the tenant tried to claim about 2 grand for various works, including a brand new bathroom. We disputed this and offered the full deposit and no more. We sent quotes to full house cleans and removals that fell under the deposit value to prove what we were prepared to pay was reasonable. This was denied and they didn't budge on their demands. They took a post-tenancy walkthrough video on 16/01/23 where it shows the house needs a clean, but doesn't show any damage at all. We went back and forth until halfway through February wherein I fell unwell and told them that unless they were willing to accept our offer or to meaningfully negotiate, to please stop contacting us. They made a claim a few days after we gave vacant possession for the full deposit (Which is protected with the DPS) which we disputed pending an agreement that it would be accepted as full payment. Nothing happened and it's now been sat waiting for a court order to be released for 6 months.
Fast forward to not hearing anything from the agent or the landlord since February, my partner and I get a county claim through the post from the landlord (not the agent) claiming £3298 plus £205 court fees. They claim we didn't vacate on the agreed upon date as per a notice period, the property was left in a mess which resulted in a rat infestation and damage was caused to some fixtures resulting in work costing £1998. No further details are given about any claim. They also claim that due to the works required, they lost 3 "about 3 weeks of rent" at a value of £1300 (For reference, we paid £825 a month in rent) as the property was not ready for the next tenant to move in. They also claim interest from the period of 12/12/2022 to 01/06/23 at a daily rate of £123.00 (I'm guessing they got their daily rate wrong, because yikes.)
The claim has the name of who we assume is the landlord and their address. We didn't have any contact details, so we reached out to the old agency and asked them to pass our email address on to the landlord so they could contact us and we could discuss. Heard nothing back, chased the next day and the agency confirmed that the landlord instructed the agency to not give out any contact details.
As far as we understand it, the property was left in a state that definitely did need a good clean and removing of some furniture and black bags, but at no point were rats ever mentioned and the claims they're making are at the moment entirely unsubstantiated. We have almost no details to go on. I'm also pretty sure that a county court claim is supposed to follow pre-court guidance on the Gov website including two "warnings" about intention to claim in court as well as both parties having an obligation to work together to prevent the issue getting to court or at-least reduce the scope of the issue. Fully aware and happy to pay for reasonable fees despite the landlord being an ass, but don't want to pay a ludicrous amount for no reason.
Current plan is to talk to citizens advice, send a letter via recorded delivery asking for contact details to the physical address located on the form and talk to the few solicitors who seem to represent tenants in disputes on Monday. Happy to receive any further advice.
Thanks!

By R. Byrd, CNN
Updated 5:00 p.m. Pst, October 9th 2023
In a world already grappling with unprecedented geopolitical shifts and the escalating effects of global warming, scientists conducting routine satellite surveys of Antarctica have made a startling discovery. A large structure, previously hidden beneath the ice, has been partially uncovered near the South Pole. This discovery has sent ripples through the scientific community and beyond.
The structure, which appears to be of considerable size, has emerged due to the rapid melting of Antarctic ice, a consequence of global warming. The discovery of such a structure in one of the most inhospitable and unexplored places on Earth raises a multitude of questions about its origin, purpose, and implications.
Preliminary investigations into the structure have yielded intriguing results. While it's still early days, some scientists suggest a possible connection to ancient legends and mythologies. This theory, while speculative and based on very preliminary findings, adds an element of mystery and intrigue to the discovery. If there is any truth to this connection, it could potentially rewrite our understanding of history and the Earth itself.
This discovery comes at a time when the world is witnessing significant transformations. From the fragmentation of the United States to the formation of new political entities in Central and South America, and significant developments in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, the world is in a state of flux. The uncovering of this mysterious structure in Antarctica adds another layer of complexity to an already tumultuous period in human history.
As scientists continue to investigate the structure, the world watches with bated breath. The implications of this discovery are potentially far-reaching and could reshape our understanding of the world. As we navigate these uncertain times, one thing is clear: we are witnessing history in the making.
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Claim Submission Thread

**OPEN UNTIL Monday 1400 PST (06-12-2023)
2200 PST
0100 EST
1500 GMT
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Please refer to the updated Claims List for choices.
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Additionally, note the following important information,
Claim Expectations (IMPORTANT)
The following will be some advice, created to help new players and returning-players alike when selecting claims. Due to some expectations, it is imperative that you seriously think about the claims you are interested in and are prepared to showcase a working knowledge of your claim. As always, due to the limited number of desirable claims, it is doubly important that you have a basic idea in relation to your plans and your claim in general.
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As always, we encourage you to claim whatever you believe to be the most fun! But please understand that we will be expecting you to showcase some basic info. Furthermore, once claims have been distributed (Friday) - you will be expected to do the following within 7 days.
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Requirements of the [CLAIM] Post
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1. For S11 - every player will be expected to submit a claim post after having received your claim via the claim distribution results. This can be done anytime within 7 days of you receiving the results. But will be your first post as you will not be permitted to play until your [CLAIM] has been submitted and approved. The [CLAIM] post can even be submitted before the season officially starts, which will allow you to begin playing immediately when we open the season for play. (This applies to the mods as well). Failure to submit a [CLAIM] within that 7-day period will result in further action being taken by the mods.

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1. You can write your [CLAIM] post in nearly any format so long as it is not a META one. It could be formatted as a News Report, as a "narrative story", or in any way you can think of (nearly).

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1. Within this [CLAIM] post, you must list or otherwise specifically note the following information in order to prove to us that you have a basic understanding of the claim. This goes doubly so for the US Successors which will, like all players, enjoy plenty of freedom in RP.

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Information that must be noted in your [CLAIM]
Head of State
Your claim's form of government (Of course this can be expanded or altered at any time once the season starts).
A basic overview of the claim at large and its history between 2022 and 2023.
Further - claimants will be expected to detail the basic economic situation (structure), government structure, etcetera in further detail at some point.
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NOTE: Failure to meet these expectations can result in your claim being denied.
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It is highly likely, that if you fail to meet the 7-day requirement - your claim and any others like it will be entered into a tertiary phase for claim submission. Meaning it is possible you will have lost your claim.
YOU MUST RENAME YOUR CLAIM.
ALL COUNTRY NAMES ARE TEMPORARY PLACEHOLDERS - CLAIMANTS EXPECTED IF NOT REQUIRED TO CHANGE THEM.
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Additionally -
There will be a 2-week grace period once the season starts. During this time, no new wars may be started. This is to allow all players time to figure out their claims/countries and establish themselves (Also do your WIKIs). This will run from Jan1 2024 - Jan 1, 2026
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CLAIM SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
In order to have your choices counted, please submit in the following format.
To make it easy for the mods, you are encouraged to please submit in a format roughly akin to below.
Claims List (In priority of first pick to last pick)

1. Example Country (Put your first pick on this line naturally)

2.
3.
4.
5.
You are not required to have 5 picks, however, it should be noted that your 1st pick should absolutely be your first choice as most times, G8/G20 countries are gone by the time it reaches your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th pick.
This claim phase will be open until Monday - 1400 unless otherwise specified.
Relating the process of claim distribution will be conducted by the mods (myself most likely), and will be via RNG when there is more than one competing player for a claim. Note that this requires the two players to put the claim in question in the same numerical position.
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CLAIM LIST FOR REFERENCE (MAP)
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AFRICA	Name	Population	GDP (billions)
Central/East Africa	Central African Federation	367,575,704	$448.01
Horn of Africa	Horn of Africa Alliance	185,605,002	$218.11
North Africa	Magrebi Union	214,846,171	$838.98
Southern Africa	Southern African Union	222,212,495	$680.24
West Africa	West Africa Federation	456,283,945	$817.99
ASIA-OCEANIA
Saudi Arabia	Arabian Gulf Union	88,501,892	$2,114
The Caucasus	Caucasian Federation	18,345,996	$121.7
China	People's Republic of China	1,474,368,607	$19,454
India	Republic of India	1,869,509,065	$4,659
Iran	Islamic Republic of Iran	173,779,803	$738.65
Japan	State of Japan	123,719,238	$4,410
The Levant	Jordan-Israeli Federation	25,461,306	$610.29
Korea	Republic of Korea	78,039,165	$1,738
Malay Archipelago	Republic of Nusantara	447,125,011	$2,845
Oceania	Oceanic Federation	33,156,035	$$1,967
Southeast Asia	Southeast Asian Union	199,337,793	$1,068
Taiwan	Taiwan/Republic of China/Chinese Taipei	23,588,613	$790.728
Central Asia	Federation of Turkestan	66,273,018	$362.86
Turkey	Republic of Turkïye	106,527,014	$1,040
Europe
Alps	Alpine Confederation	17,544,613	$1,392
Poland	Baltic Commonwealth	43,672,033	$916.18
Romania	Carpathian Federation	31,246,868	$553.24
Czechoslovakia	Czechoslovak Republic	16,131,561	$458.02
France	Republic of France	72,804,962	$3,215
Germany	Federal Republics of Germany	108,930,853	$5,784
Iberia	Iberian Federation	57,531,231	$1,764
Italy	Mediterranean Union	78,564,631	$2,497
Russia	Russian Federation	151,082,776	$2,289
Scandinavia	United Kingdoms of Scandinavia	27,695,817	$1,860
Ukraine	Republic of Ukraine	43,306,477	$151.10
British Isles	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	73,823,347	$3,781
Balkans	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia	26,164,676	$367.09
Latin America
Brazil	United States of Brazil	243,163,461	$2,263
Caribbean	Caribbean Federation	27,765,042	$210.62
Central America	Central American Federation	50,594,071	$321
Colombia	Republic of Gran Colombia	129,778,212	$800.548
Argentina	Southern Cone Federation	65,171,304	$958.69
North America
Canada	Dominion of Canada	80,309,224	$4,246
Mexico	United Mexican States	161,477,219	$ TBD
United States	United States of America	87,110,098	$ TBD
Pacific Coast	Pacific States Pact	57,204,168	$ 4,678
Midwest	Heartland Republic	39,852,287	$ 2,097
Dixie	Free States of America	90,458,708	$ 3,788

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I'm trying to get the "No gravestone left unturned" achievement, and at the moment I'm missing act 3 and 5. So, I'm using some throwaway teams that can reach the boss easily just to afk and die.
I got to the focused fault, but since it felt boring just passing turns, I played it out for a bit. I got to 2nd phase, some of the guys started to die... but not Damian. Because you know, Damian said "fuck you and your achievement" and decided to resist around 10 DD checks, as well as passively damage the boss with his toxic state.
Dunno man, for anyone complaining about this boss, I think you just have to git gud /s. For the life of me I can't wipe on this boss, even if actively trying.
how it started
how it ended

There are a number of changes affecting mesmer that overall are not an improvement to the game so I thought I'd post my opinions here in the hope that it may sway anet to rethink/adjust them.
One of my main issues is that it doesn't address alac builds being unable to upkeep alac without a target. Being able to upkeep alac in a non-dps phase is very relevant as it can be the difference between having skills ready for the next phase or not. A number alac builds have been vastly less popular for this reason (the worst offenders being willbender and previously untamed)
Chronomancer:
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Stretched Time: This trait has been reworked. Flow of Time affects nearby allies. Grant alacrity to nearby allies when you summon a phantasm.

Previously alacrity was tied to bringing wells and casting them off cd to maintain alacrity. Arguably this wasn't a very interesting way of applying boons so changing it makes sense. However this change simply means you instead cast phantasms off cd which you would be doing anyway for dps. This also means alac chrono joins the group of alac providers that cannot give alac without a target.
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Seize the Moment: This trait no longer causes Tides of Time to grant quickness and instead grants quickness to nearby allies when you summon a phantasm.

This one makes very little sense to me. When people complained about boons being tied to using util skills off cd, Seize the Moment was pointed to as being a great example of how boon traits should work. Additionally quickness chrono will now play very similarly to alac chrono which I suppose could be argued to be good for accessibility but imo just reduces the number of unique builds/playstyles.
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Well of Senility: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Increased pulse power coefficient from 0.7 to 1.5 in PvE only. Increased the number of boons removed from 2 to 3 in PvE only.
Well of Action: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Increased pulse power coefficient from 0.7 to 1.5 in PvE only. The final pulse of this skill now grants alacrity instead of superspeed.

While I don't disagree with these changes themselves, this now means both these wells have a total coefficient of 4.5 while Well of Calamity, the well that "deals massive damage" has only 4.7. I don't see many situations where that 0.2 increase will be taken over free alac or cc.
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Mirage:
Staff, staxe, and axe mirage seem to have been a bit of an issue for anet regarding separating the dps and the support builds. One thing to point out is that the confusion change is an overall nerf for all mirage builds on any real fight.
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Chaos Vortex: Reduced clone bleeding and torment duration from 8 seconds to 4 seconds.

This is a big nerf to both staff mirage and staxe mirage. Staxe mirage currently gives ~50+% alac by maintaining staff clones while still dealing top notch damage especially on "confusion fights" like SH and Largos. Staff mirage was VERY good on fights with long phases so I don't think a nerf was unwarranted here but it still struggles immensely on fights where you have to change target as the second your clones die, your alac goes out the window. Personally I like the existence of staxe mirage but anet does not seem to so my suggestion regarding that would be to firstly give the alac back to the player cast of chaos vortex as requiring clones is the main pain point of mirage; and secondly, tie alac generation to one of the traits competing with Mirrored Axes so that there is a larger opportunity cost for bringing alac.
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Other points:
The change to Bladeturn Requiem is odd. The only previous use for it was the block. Without it the damage will need to be buffed a lot for it to be a relevant skill.
Dps chrono still needs some love. It's damage output is too low to be competitive with other dps options especially considering gs2 is bugged and regularly misses hits in real fights.
Pls give back the superspeed from Master of Manipulations. Having superspeed tied to skills like Feedback and Null Field instead of Blink doesn't make a lot of sense and severely impacted the flow of my mesmer zooming.

Any tips on survival during the oppressor phase of the last fight. I clear the houses no problem, get the demon witch down mostly easily after she's spilt into 3. Then the oppressors hit, and its instawipe. I'm a Necro, level 35 using the blood drain(I guess it's called) leveling build. The issue I'm having is keeping my skeleton Golems alive long enough so I can focus on blood surge hits to do damage. The oppressors kill off the skeletons/golems too fast. Any ideas of what I can do to get this over with, it's ROUGH.

Source
I'm Iskarel. I maintain the PvE Thief builds and guides on Snow Crows
With a PvE perspective, I'm going to run through the changes, discuss their impact, and talk about current meta builds and how they're impacted.
Want the build-by-build cliff notes? Skip to the bottom, search for "tl;dr"
I know this is a lot. Think of it as a reference document.
A LOT has changed. The builds aren't unrecognizable but the texture has changed almost across the board.

Flanking is Dead (for most endgame bosse)

To make them more reliable in endgame PvE content, all effects that benefit when the player strikes from the flank or from behind now always apply their benefits when striking defiant foes.

Not all players know that "flanking" or "from behind or the sides" just means—don't be in front of the target.
Ever used a build with Thief runes? Just don't stand directly in front of the target.
What fewer players will know is that there's a small set of skills that actually need you to be ~180-degrees behind your target.

• Thief Backstab (deals double damage from behind)
• Thief Sword Stealth Attack (only dazes from behind)
• Ranger Greatsword Hilt (dazes from the front, stuns from behind. This basically doesn't matter in PvE)
• Mesmer Downstate phantasm (deals more damage if the phantasm hits from behind. Hey it's like a Thief!)

Which way does Keep Construct face when it descends back to the arena after the orb-rift-push phase?
Which way does Sabetha face during her Flame Wall?
I'm not going to answer these questions because the answers don't matter anymore! This skill expression is now gone.
Just backstab from any angle.
Ah but "defiant foes"? What isn't included there?
Can you backstab Primordus in the Harvest Temple strike if your group stays on the left vs right side, when looking from the center towards the dragon?

You would have to be on the right side. The left is the dragon's face.

Which way does Conjured Amalgamate face?

When approaching CA's platform, it is facing to your right. This also applies to the hands. Stand on the left side of the platform, and "above" the hands (closer to the portal leading away from this encounter).

Which way do the hands on Adina face?

2 o'clock (north), 5 o'clock (northwest), 7 o'clock (south), 10 o'clock (southeast)
No, I don't know why.
Just use your rifle and pierce two hands with Spotter's Shot + Death's Judgment! That's better than remembering these facing positions.

These are non-defiant "prop" type enemies. Also included here is Drakkar, the Octovine, and Tequatl. IIRC.
BTW Drakkar is made up 17 prop pieces, and you can only cast Deadeye's Mark on one of them. Don't play Deadeye here, you're trolling yourself. :D

Acrobatics Mental Gymnastics

Yeah this ain't it, chief. This is still a defensive and mobility-oriented traitline.
The damage modifier in Endless Stamina can't compete with Deadly Arts or Critical Strikes, even when combined with the Power in Swinder's Equilibrium.
The other stuff is maybe interesting for solo open world champions but Shadow Arts is already quite capable at that, and Condition Thief has a lot more toys to work with when solo compared to Power.
It's something but this traitline still feels ironically directionless.

Improvisational Theater of War

Interesting! We can now use this traitline predictably, resetting the cooldown of all or utility skills. On the surface that's good because it means we'll always get value out of the reset...unless our skill uses are staggered. More on that later.

Mag Bomb Delenda Est.

Currently this skill's damage-per-cast-time is roughly double that of Daredevil Staff 2, Weakening Charge. Notably, the cast time is short because it pulses damage.
The coefficient we have on the wiki, drawn from the Game's API, is 4.10. ANet lists a 1.50 (per hit, so 4.50 total) nerfed to 0.70. So... Uh...
Let's say Throw Magnetic Bomb's damage is nerfed to 50% of its current damage. Or there about.
So next patch, one Throw Magnetic Bomb is close to the damage of one Staff 2, but the damage comes out over time (during our Assassin Signet burst) and the cast animation is faster than Staff 2.

But is it worth losing Executioner?
Probably not. Executioner is approximately 9.52% damage on a fight that spends 50% of its time above 50% target HP and 50% of time below (due to Ferocious Strikes).
That's a lot of damage to be made up by another use of a stolen skill!

Daredevil's Bound to be Good

Bound: Increased power coefficient from 1.75 to 3.5

This ratchets up the damage of our dodge so that it beats the damage-per-cast-time of Punishing Strikes (skill 1 part C) and Staff 5, while still losing to Staff Strike and Staff Bash (skill 1 parts A/B), Staff 2, and Fist Flurry/Palm Strike.
This damage increase is valuable because

• (A) it makes dodging better for damage, on top of the damage modifiers provided by Havoc Specialist and Bounding Dodger
• (B) if we get excess endurance from our helpful allies, burning it off to maintain our modifiers hurts our DPS less on the future patch.

Auto chain go brrrr

Staff Strike, Staff Bash: Increased power coefficient.

... Uh oh.
This increase the DPS of the first and second part of the chain well beyond the last hit.
The optimal DPS rotation now involves interrupting the chain after the 2nd hit.
That's not easy to do on most professions, which have a limited number of viable interrupts, but we're Thief, baby!
Staff Strike, Staff Bash, Weakening Charge. Repeat. Throw in a Fist Flurry. Save your Palm Strike. Yeah. This sort of thing.
Calculations done by REMagic42 ( training-accident-36 ) show the following

• new auto chain interrupt rotation: 40,252
• old benchmark rotation: 38,593

A not insignificant DPS increase provided by this (unintended?) balance predicament.
You could just not do this. That's up to you. The build is getting buffed by ~4,000 DPS next patch but it still has all the old problems. Don't know those? Read here

Let's Get Physical (Lights out, follow the noise)

Various Physical Skill cooldown reductions

These are neat and strictly a positive.
Left, a great player who provides benchmarks for Power and Condition Daredevil, already tested Condition Daredevil with cooldown-traited Impairing Daggers and found them simply worse in group content vs Devourer Venom. You can read more on his benchmark.
So the Impairing Daggers cooldown reduction (CDR) doesn't matter to us.
A cooldown reduction for Channeled Vigor would've been cool!

This skill basically gives you a get-out-of-jail-free dodge if you're ever scared that burning all your dodges for Havoc Specialist will leave you vulnerable. You can get a dodge with Withdraw on a shorter cooldown but that travels backwards from your facing direction which can be scary.
This skill is also very useful for maintaining Lotus Training uptime when playing Condition Daredevil. If you can't keep hitting the boss with your auto-attack chain and F1 Steal, you will run out of endurance and lose your condition damage buff. Use Channeled Vigor to maintain buff uptime when you can't hit the boss. (This tip comes from Left!)

Impact Strike is still worse defiance-bar to cooldown ratio vs Basilisk Venom, but any improvement is nice. This skill is good when you can't guarantee all hits of Basilisk Venom will hit your target, or when you need to CC more frequently than Basilisk's cooldown allows.

Death-onate Plasma and "Boon Thief"

Farewell, Boon Thief. Without Quickness, we can no longer role-compress all those shiny boons in Plasma into a Quickness Build.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the damage of Detonate Plasma will not be worth its cast time purely from a DPS perspective, especially on a Condition Build, but you might still get some boon uptime from Daredevils on fights like Matthias and Twin Largos' Kenut.
You can now permanently sunset your Celestial/Ritualist gear for Boon Thief. Will you use it for Alacrity Specter later? I don't now, I don't know how much Alacrity is given by that trait. We'll talk more later. :)

Also Icebrood Saga exists

These really don't matter. Unstable Reagent is maybe a DPS increase, I don't have a log with it for cast time.
This is NOT Unstable Artifact BTW. That skill is still worth using for both Power and Condition DPS.
Cursed Artifact is like throw-Plaguelands, and an Ethereal field at that. It's free real estate on the Condition Build.
Time in a Bottle is squad-wide alacrity AND quickness. Take that, Chronomancer! It's only found in Cold War and randomly in EoD strikes. :)

Dumbed-down-eye

Deadeye Stolen Skill splash support

Stolen Skills now grant their beneficial effects around the caster.

These are mostly "splash" uptimes of boons, but you can also get superspeed and a modest heal. Neat! Deadeye providing a token amount of squad value beyond its DPS and CC output.

Deadeye Malicious Intent buff

Malicious Intent: Increased Malice gain from 1 to 2 in PvE only

This is actually big!
Firstly, this increases the damage dealt by the lower difficulty Be Quick or Be Killed Dagger Deadeye rotation (if you've ever heard someone described Dagger Deadeye as 5111151115111, that's this).

1 more Malice pip after each Mark and Stealth attack boost the damage modifier of Malicious Backstab. I don't have a quick estimate for this increase yet.

Secondly, this is wonderful for the Dagger-Dagger Maleficent Seven rotation.

All Power Dagger skills (Heartseeker, Dancing Dagger, Cloak & Dagger) are single-damage packet skills (with the exception of Dancing Dagger when bounced from your main target, to another enemy, and back to your main target). This means they have only one chance to score a crit, and thus only one chance to earn 2 Malice instead of 1.
Power Thief derives 15% critical chance from Critical Strikes' Keen Observer trait, which demands the player stay above 75% HP. You won't have 100% uptime of this trait in many raid fights, especially if your healer is slacking. If the current Dagger Deadeye benchmark was performed at 75% player HP, without drastically altering gear to accommodate for the missing critical chance, the benchmark could lose up to 12,000 DPS!, dropping it nearly into support territory.
This Malicious Intent buff gives you a safety cushion for one of those Initiative skills to score a non-crit, making the rotation more robust in endgame encounters. It does NOT reduce the minimum number of Initiative skills needed to reach maximum Malice: that is still 3 with Malicious Intent and 4 without. It does reduce the maximum needed by 1 skill, which is also great!

Quickly Fire For Effect

This trait no longer requires a target to grant boons to allies.

Er, it doesn't require one right now. Specifically, if you Mark a target, you can use your F2 and gain boons even if your stolen skill is obstructed by terrain. If you have your enemy targeted while outside 1,500 range you will get an out of range error that stops you from casting F2, but simply untargeting the enemy will let you use the skill to get boons. If you are obstructed or out of range, you don't hit the target.
I assume what this means is that if you do NOT have a marked target, you can cast a cantrip to get a new F2. That's cool and rather handy for the new Quickness build.

Shadow Flare isn't real, it can't hurt you

Shadow Flare: Reduced cooldown from 30 to 20 seconds. This skill only damages once instead of pulsing. Activate the flip-over Shadow Swap to trigger another damage instance from your original location.

Deadeye dumbed down. Navigating self-reveal with pulsing damage skills on DPS Deadeye has been a hallmark of modern builds for several years—Shadow Flare for Power, Thousand Needles for Condition.
That problem is now eliminated for Power. You don't need to know the timing, you don't need to know where to throw Shadow Flare. Just Do your backstab, cast Shadow Flare for one damage packet, cast it again, go for another Backstab. No fuss, no skill expression, no frustration, no learning curve.
I don't like this change, I understand why other people like this change. I think it's dumb to change this. If you don't like self-reveal, consider not playing the class that uses Stealth and Revealed for its DPS output.

Fun in the Chamber

One in the Chamber: This trait now also increase the damage of F2 Stolen Skills in addition to its previous effects

In case anyone is unfamiliar with Deadeye—it doesn't have access to any core Stolen Skills. No Mag Bombs here!
This is a nice perk. The important thing is that this trait gives us an extra F2 charge every time we use a Stolen Skill...That's for Quickness.
This trait is also valuable to Condition Deadeye builds (particularly since there's a 4/9 chance they get a stolen skill that applies damaging conditions!) and to Power Pistol-Pistol Deadeye. See more of that here.

Binding Shadow, my beloved

Binding Shadow - Reduced cooldown from 30 to20 seconds in PvE.

Cool! I love—

This skill now immobilizes marked targets instead of knocking them down

Oh. Uhhh it already immobilized them. I assume it immobilizes them more? That sucks, this was an amazing breakbar skill, particular on Condition Deadeye where it applied several poison stacks (natively, and via Panic Strike with Immobilize) and gave an extra F2 charge from One in the Chamber.
It's lower cooldown on boonstrip which is neat? Matches No Pain No Gain time in Fractals, I suppose.
Just use a Power Mesmer, they passively breathe boonstrip.

Quickness Deadeye builds

Three options!
Oops! All cantrips

This option will spam out cantrip like nobody's business to meet the voracious demand of Might uptime.
Fire For Effect grants 8 stacks of Might for 12 seconds. The with-Alacrity cooldown of Cantrips are: 16 (Binding Shadow, Shadow Flare), 20 seconds (Malicious Restoration heal), 25 seconds (Mercy, Shadow Gust). When using Mercy, the cooldown of F1 is effectively the cooldown of Mercy, plus minimally the cast time of the F2, plus the cast time of F1 again.
So some of our Might is locked behind 25+ seconds. Building for 100% Might Duration would be devastating for our DPS output. We could cover 100% Might uptime with a single trio of F2 casts anyway—Binding Shadow, Malicious Restoration, Shadow Flare—but that would not take tactical advantage of the natural Deadeye's Mark cooldown.
Instead, we'll cover Quickness with two sets of F2 casts, staggered across the duration of our Might stacks. Left has an old benchmark demonstrating this technique.

So that's our 24-might upkeep option. It's not pretty, and it's Cantrip spam. ANet said we wouldn't have this in the game anymore.
Well, what if we don't have to generate Might?
Then we have two options:
3 cantrips with no Improvisation

This option will maintain a burst of 24 might as we apply quickness, or we can space out the stolen skills to maintain at least 8 stacks indefinitely. Sounds pretty good!

Improvisation

We'll probably still be using Shadow Flare because it's just good damage, and Improvisation selects for builds that use active utility skills, not passive signets. We might even be able to use Malicious Intent instead of One in the Chamber for this build, earning us more damage on Malicious Backstab.

So we have options.

Quickness Deadeye weapon options (We don't have those! )

Maleficent Seven is the only equalizer at work that allows bad weapons to do somewhat okay, and without that, we're back to shopping with the to the usual harsh restriction of "the best single skill out of all these weapons crushes the validity of all other options".
Stealth attacks? Naw, just spam F2s without Malice.
"Filler" initiative skills used to build up to an Initiative reset at max Malice? Nope, don't care, whatever has the best initiative-to-damage ratio is what we're running.
Thief Dagger is about matched with Thief sword for auto attack damage but Dagger is home to the centralizing Cloak & Dagger → Backstab combo. This does huge damage from any direction—flanking is gone!
Sword, by contrast, suffers a DPS loss when using any dual wield skill, Headshot, or Black Powder. The only DPS gain skills are Cloak & Dagger (but the stealth attack for sword is BARELY worth using, you could actually just cast Cloak & Dagger twice in a row and do just as well), and Sword 2...without using the return-to shadowstep. Meaning Sword 2 has a 15-second cooldown. Just to do slightly more than the auto-attack.
Need CC? Pack an off-hand pistol and fill time with auto-attacks, they're very good.
What about Pistol?

It's just weaker.

Shortbow?

It sucks really bad against single targets.

Rifle? This is the sniper spec!

It sucks if you don't have Maleficent Seven for infinite Initiative and either stealth utility skills or Silent Scope to unlock Death's Judgment.

Specter, rant about single-target/ally-target support

Ally-targeted scepter skills now also grant a lesser effect to additional allies in a radius around the target.

I don't know why ANet is so obsessed with single target support for PvE Specter, but they'll learn its untenable eventually. They've been gradually walking back the single target focus ever since release, and we are now about 15 months past Specter's official release and coming up on 2 years since it's beta.
Ally-targeting is clunky.
Single-target support is nonviable. We have encounters that apply arena damage to all players, and each player in the squad can take damage from the same AoE and it's the healer's job to keep the whole team up.
A "lesser effect". Reduced duration? Great, what's the point of that? You might as well just make it all the reduced duration.
Does "splashed" Shadow Sap not even grant protection to the other allies? Great, we won't use it.
Hopefully this will just be something like reduced Barrier or Healing, and the Boons are intact, but it's already been confirmed by the new member of the design team, Trig, on a Twitch Stream (Mighty Teapot's?) that Endless Night will not give Quickness to "splashed" allies.
Maybe this skill shouldn't give quickness at all. Why is the design team not skill splitting? What are they afraid of?

The Dark Side of Scepter Splash

If you paid attention to Specter during its beta testing, you might be aware of a very weird build that used Endless Night (Scepter Pistol dual wield beam skill that granted quickness and 7-packets of Barrier to 3 allies, if you could pierce through the allies).
This rotation was initially theorycrafted by Left when Specter was first showed off. I did some early proof-of-concept on the build, then Left took it over and improved it to around 51,000 DPS.
That's a lot of damage!
Watch that video briefly, and notice how I swap between the enemy and my allies, applying one skill to the target then the Endless Night beam to my allies.
When Specter applies barrier to an ally, they receive a stack of Rotwallow Venom, which applies a short-duration stack of torment to a single enemy just like normal venoms.
Each cast of Endless Night back then was 21 applications of Rotwallow Venom, with more Torment duration than we have now.
ANet killed that build back during beta by making the beam target a single enemy, nerfing the quickness application, nerfing Rotwallow Venom duration, nerfing Specter's Torment damage modifier, nerfing Consume Shadows to require charging up.... The list goes on.
Why do I bring this up?

Scepter Autos on Allies

Currently the scepter auto chain applies 54 seconds of Torment (in the form of multiple stacks). If the scepter auto chain can instead apply barrier to 3 allies, then this balloons to 72 seconds without Strength of Shadows, or 108 seconds with Strength of Shadows.
Yes.
The auto-attack chain will be twice as strong when targeting allies, vs targeting the enemy.
Endless Night is not worth using against an enemy target, but it might be worth using on allies. This rotation won't have room for auto attacks, so I'm not pinning any hopes to this.
No, the optimal damage rotation will probably be Twilight combo, Siphon, and Shroud skills on the enemy, then filling time with Scepter skills on allies. We will probably spend less time in Shroud because those autos are just so cracked...

Second Opinion, moving away from Consume Shadows

Ever since beta all forms of Specter have run Consume Shadows—Alacrity, DPS, Heal. This is because Consume Shadows can apply barrier to allies, giving them Rotwallow venom. The other adept traits are purely defensive, so they're not used by the DPS and Alacrity builds...and Consume Shadows is an extremely potent healing tool. So potent, it's been nerfed repeatedly!

Charged time reduced from instant to 4 seconds, maximum shroud cut by more than 50%, conversion ratio reduced from 100 to 50%

Second Opinion will grant bonus Condition Damage, more with a Scepter. This should be, at minimum, +80/+80, which will beat the ~800 DPS provided by perfect Rotwallow Venom application from Consume Shadows.
Perfect?

If your allies are too injured and Consume Shadows only heals them overflowing into Barrier, you won't give them Rotwallow.

Traversing Dusk no longer gives Alacrity

This is just a heal trait now. That's just what it does.

Shadestep is the new Alacrity trait

Oh. Uh. I'll keep it quick.

1. This reduces our gameplay from 2 separate rotations with their own quirks and different Shroud lengths, to 1—the DPS rotation.

How do you give alacrity? Just go into shroud and push buttons.
How do you do DPS? Just go into shroud and push buttons.
Alacrity Specter's Well cooldowns were inaccessible inside Shadow Shroud because we inherited a shroud, not just a kit like Druid's Celestial Avatar or Holosmith's Photon Forge.
Druid Spirits off cooldown while in CA? Don't care, you can push em.
Specter wells off cooldown while in Shadow Shroud? You might be gaining DPS from shroud skills, or healing from Consume Shadows, but you're losing Alacrity uptime. Is that tradeoff worth it?
Doesn't matter anymore. Just do the benchmark DPS rotation.
You're too slow? Then your alacrity uptime will suffer. You need to be on pace with going in and out of shroud, just like the DPS rotation. Difference is, if you're bad at this, it's going to frustrate other people.
This is not the hardest rotation in game to optimize and you of course have the option to make it easier with Ritualist gear (which you should do anyway if you plan to still run Consume Shadows, will be a two-fold personal DPS loss).

\2. Ever been kicked out of Shroud by incoming damage in a raid/strike/open world meta? No more Alacrity uptime for you. Better refill your Shadow Force quickly—and Larcenous Torment generates Shadow Force FAR more slowly than Traversing Dusk

Fun fact: Traversing Dusk's 1% Shadow Force per ally in your shadowstep scales indefinitely, not just up to 5 players. That gives you colossal Shadow Force generation in crowded metas and even raids.

Want to use your Siphon on ally? No you don't, that's valuable Shadow Force generation you need to maintain tempo for Alacrity.
Again, you can wear Ritualist gear to soften this loss.
Want to have the utility of Well of Bounty? Well, previously that utility was tied to your Alacrity uptime, your DPS uptime (lingering outside shroud for Well of Bounty was a loss), and your healing output (Traversing Dusk, and maintaining tempo in/out of Shadow Shroud for Consume Shadows).
Now you can take Well of Bounty and have it on demand, at a DPS loss.
Previously you could have just take advantage of the long Stability duration to cast this well early, or delay it slightly to cover the mechanic.

How much DPS will ANet allow this build to have?
We don't know. And now it's DPS is very closely tied to the DPS build because they're doing nearly the exact same thing.
This has never happened to Firebrand, trust me.

tl;dr It's dangerous to read all that up there! Skip to here!

Condition Daredevil

Unchanged by Impairing Daggers cooldown reduction

Power Daredevil

Buffed to ~38.6 if you do the old rotation.
Buffed to 40.2 if you do the new degenerate 1a 1b 2 1a 1b 2 rotation that interrupts our auto chain.
Still screwed by all the usual stuff.
Mag Bomb damage normalized. Cool. Still amazing utility on that skill.

Boon Thief

Dead. Deadeye killed it.

Power Dagger Deadeye

Much easier to play. Splashes some cute boons onto its subgroup, at random. Have to see if Shadow Flare is still worth using. Hopefully, right?

Power Rifle Deadeye

Silent Scope uses Shadow Flare, I hope that's still worth using.
No need to flank with Premeditation Rifle is nice. Swapping Impact to an Accuracy sigil (or not doing that, and losing crit chance) was ~1,200 DPS loss, so that's avoided. I don't mind losing flanking here that much because Flanking wasn't make-or-break adrenaline pumping like dagger. It was just a boring loss.

Quickness Deadeye

I hope you like pushing 5 and 1 a whole lot because that's almost all this is. Also pushing cantrips for F2 charges to provide quickness.
It will play okay, but pretttttttttty similar to utility-spam builds that people hate, with the added bonus of casting TWO skills for every application of quickness.
You can tune this to your liking BUT

IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MANY WAYS THIS GAME'S ENEMIES CAN APPLY REVEALED TO YOU THEN YOU'RE IN FOR A TREAT WHEN YOU PICK UP QUICKNESS DEADEYE NEXT PATCH :D

It won't really prevent you from applying quickness but it will tank your DPS and fracture your soul.
One of us. One of us!
This is getting no changes, by the way. It'd be a huge amount of effort from the studio's programmers for one elite spec, for one profession, largely in one game mode (instanced PvE), with a small player base.
Probably just not happening. Not a question of "want to", it's a question of resource management AND doing this right.
Remember stealth-tanking Old Lion's Court? Because they didn't apply Revealed, then they only applied Revealed once and Deadeye just Shadow Melded out of it?

DPS Specter

Buffed by Second Opinion, dubiously buffed by targeting allies with the auto chain.
You can still run Consume Shadows for team healing/barrier.

Alacrity Specter

I don't know. Presumably the shroud skills will allow us to provide at least 50% uptime with a non-degenerate rotation (one that doesn't have us spending all our time in shroud). Said degenerate rotation is naturally policed by the fact our shroud absorbs incoming damage.
Will it run Consume Shadows? Not for optimal damage anymore.

Alac Share Specter

Just change your grandmaster from Strength of Shadows to Shadestep and do the normal rotation. Should do at least 50% uptime, unless Alac specter is just nonviable and can't maintain Alacrity.

Today I built my first pc and overall it was a success. However, I’m a bit confused by what seems like a discrepancy between what the manual for case the indicates vs. what I’m seeing on the actual component.
For context, I’m using the Lian Li Lancool 216RX with ARGB fans (without the optional controller) and the Gigabyte Aorus Elite V2. My goal is to plug the 3 pin 5V argb connector (for the front fans) from the case into one of the 3 pin 5V connectors on my motherboard (specifically D_LED1).
The concern that I have is regarding the connector for the case. The arrow (which I understand to indicate voltage) is on the side of the connector with 1 pin and the dead port. My mobo manual clearly indicates the arrow should be on the side with the 2 ports, and the Lian Li manual shows a diagram confirming this. Idk what to make of this, and am concerned I could bork something if the voltage and ground are actually reversed. Further when I installed my air cooler with RGB the pin matched what my manual indicates is correct and no issues there.
I can upload an image if that would be helpful.
Is this a legit reason to be concerned or typical? Could this cause permanent damage if I just plug it in and try it? Could my case be defective?
Appreciate any guidance in advance. Thank you.

Hello everyone, Have some items up for trade
All the buyouts for the selected items are just because of the rules.
I am open to discussing trades on Steam or Discord: Ab1r#1680 , feel free to add me there to discuss.
Some of the tradeable items are listed as follows:
TradeLink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=201510509&token=5HbDjuiH
-
Item Condition Float B/O
★ Stiletto Knife Damascus Steel MW 0.10 360$
★ Gut Knife Doppler Phase-2 FN 0.03 218$
★ Gut Knife Lore FT 0.27 210$
★ Ursus Knife Blue Steel MW 0.13 206$
★ Falchion Knife Autotronic FT 0.16 203$
★ Gut Knife Doppler Phase-3 FN 195$
★ Moto Gloves Blood Pressure FT 0.37 187$
★ Stiletto Knife Boreal Forest BS 0.67 185$
★ Shadow Daggers Slaughter MW 0.11 182$
★ Survival Knife Night Stripe MW 0.13 170$
★ Ursus Knife Night Stripe FT 0.34 157$
★ Survival Knife Stained FT 0.33 154$
★ Falchion Knife Freehand BS 0.45 140$
★ Survival Knife Blue Steel WW 0.44 139$
★ Moto Gloves Cool Mint BS 0.75 136$
★ Bowie Knife Bright Water BS 0.47 127$
★ Ursus Knife Urban Masked BS 0.71 126$
★ Huntsman Knife Rust Coat BS 0.53 120$
★ Navaja Knife Crimson Web WW 0.39 113$
★ Gut Knife Ultraviolet FT 0.16 111$
★ Gut Knife Stained FT 0.20 108$
★ Gut Knife Scorched FT 0.23 96$
★ Driver Gloves Rezan the Red WW 0.38 78$
★ Hand Wraps Desert Shamagh BS 0.48 66$
★ Hand Wraps Duct Tape BS 0.65 65$
★ Hand Wraps Constrictor BS 0.45 64$
★ Hydra Gloves Emerald FT 0.30 63$
★ Hydra Gloves Mangrove FT 0.37 52$
AWP Wildfire FN 0.06 168$
M4A1-S Golden Coil MW 0.14 83$
UMP-45 Crime Scene FN 0.06 66$
USP-S Printstream FT 0.36 59$
M4A1-S Golden Coil FT 0.35 47$
ST AK-47 Redline FT 0.30 47$
M4A4 The Emperor MW 0.09 46$
ST M4A4 In Living Color MW 0.07 42$
M4A4 Neo-Noir FN 0.05 35$
AWP Hyper Beast FT 0.22 34$
Sir Bloody Darryl Royale The Professionals 21$
AK-47 Redline FT 0.27 19$
Glock-18 Bullet Queen MW 0.13 17$
P250 See Ya Later FN 0.06 12$
& more
Some prices might be outdated.
Note: I have new items coming and going daily and everything is not included in this list but everything is up for trade just send an offer!
TradeLink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=201510509&token=5HbDjuiH

Hi all - this one is for the stepmoms.
I’m a stepmom and I’m also a therapist and coach specializing in working with stepmoms specifically. I’m thinking of building a course or program targeting stepmoms and I’m currently in the research phase.
I have some questions I would love to ask the stepmoms here. I know what my answers would be as a stepmom, but I want to make sure I’m considering any blind spots. If you’re so inclined, my questions are:

1. What is the biggest result you want to see in your blended family life right now?
   
2. What ways have you already tried to solve this problem?
   
3. What hasn’t worked?
   
4. What are you scared about moving forward toward this goal?
   
5. What would make you doubt you could get those results?
   
6. What would be a dream come true as it relates to finding a solution to this problem?
   

Thank you all so much! I really appreciate your taking the time to weigh in 🙏🏽 ☺️

Its been 10 years since i started this dark Journey. It all started cuz my perfect life in a bubble burst due to heartbreak. Heh It's g Funny once you think about it. If she didn't make a fool out of me I wouldn't have started doubting myself, I wouldn't question everything, I wouldn't have started rebelling against society, against the world. If I'm being honest I'm thankful to her for making me who i am now. Ah you are probably thinking why I'm telling you all this rubbish. Hmmm call me ... sentimental. Well to be fair, after the pentacross society of fantasy unlocked the secrets of magic, rebelling against the world is as easy as sipping tea from a wine glass. Tho it's not easy to carry the weight of people you killed in cold blood. U never get used to the feeling of warm blood dripping from your hands... you know you should count yourself lucky i haven't taken your heart out of your body.. sigh I told you people.. NO! I specifically warned you people not to enter my domain, I told you not to disturb my peace, I TOLD YOU NOT TO TRAMPLE THE SANCTUARY I CREATED... . .(the dots represent time skip) . You said you name was ##***#.. hmmm I'll call you.. hero, yeah it suits you. A hero tied up and tortured in the evil villains castel.. if you ask me its been 3 weeks since u guys attacked me and lost and i captured your heart... literally. Hahahaha haaaaaa.... well it's not like you could do anything to me or escape till u have this curse etched in your heart.. rest easy hero we've got a lot to talk about . . . Ah you're awake... What's this? You're wondering why this castle is clean without any cleaning spells or servants.. that's because of the robot I made with my magic.. technically you can call them golems cuz th3y use magic instead of electricity.. but that's not what u really wanna ask, do you... you wanna know why you're alive after all it's been 3 months since your capture.. like i said before It's me being sentimental.. and i got no one else to talk to …
. . I've got to show u something.. this... see how the magic lines just wrap around the nodes and its not creating any redundancy in the formula.. i've added extra mana circuits to battle the looping problem and the efficiency... looking at your face you don't understand a thing... let's see... "magic circle function, will do job fine". Heh now u get it.. silly human.. well u go do what u want except leaving of course.. . . . . WHY ARE YOU HERE? DID YOU READ YOU JOURNALS!?.. I TREATED U LIKE A GUEST AND NOT A PRISONER... AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME.. BY READING. MY. JOURNALS. ABOUT MY OLD. LIFE... get out, go now before i rip you tO SHRED.. GET THE FUCK OUT THIS INSTANT. . . . . What do you want? I told you you're free to leave.. you're "people '' have not entered my realm for the last year and haven't done anything suspicious.. you can go to your world and leave this place behind.... why do you wanna know what i will do.. ah i see, the evil villain can't be left alone without any good reason.. don't worry, now that I've completed my magic circle I'll use it to go back in time... No. Not to turn things around... I just wanna see how i was before i lost her... you've read my journals.. you know she didn't love me as i did her but i did love her more than she could know.. she was killed as a result of my uprising. I never forgave your government to drop glintstone shrapnel missiles on my home town to stop me... and I never will... but if i stopped before.. she would be alive.. she would be happy... anyways get out or I'll really kill you this time... . . . . . Hmmm.. hero you've come back... it's been.. 3 years since I last saw you I think.. i don't know what time it really is due to all the chrono-disallow around me... oh this... it's nothing just a wound from a glintstone shrapnel... yeah i tried to change it.. change the history of the world itself... the world rejected it.. countless times.. until it didn't. It was probably an error but still it was something... I saw the universe split into two the moment I decided to redirect the missile. Although this world.. which I ruined from my actions still exists.. be happy that there is another version of this world which goes on normally... oh yeah after i die... the two universes will collide and the best possible result will be dominant and absorb the less dominant one... the less one being this universe... I'll cease to exist but everything else will have a chance to flourish... hero.. you'll be the new ray of hope for that world... heh yeah for you I've made some adjustments... you'll forget about me but you'll never forget the stuff u learned here... help the world flourish into a new golden age... a world without darkness. A world without me.. without Aeincrad.....

Hello, I'm your host BigBearIsWatchingYou, live from Katmai, here with a breaking announcement.
This year's theme for Fat Bear Week has been announced.

Fatter Bear Week

Same place, same time, now featuring Polar Bears!
The booties are bigger, the wiggles are wiggler, and the competition is even more fierce 💪
Tune in this October! And don't question where the brown bears went. It was a grizzly scene.
 
DruidNick has been banished from Katmai... their affiliation is Grizzly Bears
RyeWritesAF swims with the salmon in the sky... their affiliation is Grizzly Bears
TheLadyMistborn has been removed from Katmai for failing to vote... their affiliation is Grizzly Bears
 

Top 3 Votes
DruidNick
Greensilence2
Bearoffire

 

Polar Bears Win 🎉

Koala Wins 🎉

 

Signup the rerun here

 
New timeline:
This weekend we’ll be posting the wrap-up with balance adjustments for the 2nd game.

• June 12 - 14 hiddenWerewolves will be participating in the api protest (Open Letter)
  
• June 14 - roles will go out
  
• June 15 - Phase 0 will start
  

Turnover will be the same time 8:00 PM PDT