#i know that what each summon does specifically isn't - with the idea you'll just try them yourself - but i think they can get forgotten?

[fooligandan]

kingdom heart post 2 idea: "this one just has a bunch of gameplay tips"

[iamthecomet]

You wanted headcanons? I'm giving you Mountain/Dew headcanons because they live rent-free in my head -Mountain knows Dewdrop gets cold during the winter and will always bring him to the greenhouse on the coldest days when the fireplace won't warm him up enough. He'll show Dewdrop the new additions to the greenhouse since his last visit and will always have the Fire Ghoul close to him -Pet names. Mountain has a variety of pet names for Dewdrop. He loves to call him fire poppy the most because it represents the fire element and symbolizes that even though something can be burned beauty can still grow from the remaining ashes -Dewdrop LOVES to push Mountain's buttons. He wants to see the Earth Ghoul crack slowly with his antics before he cracks down on his misbehavior and does something about it. Sometimes Mountain gives in and sometimes Mountain can withstand his antics- it all depends on the day, his mood, and just what Dewdrop is doing to piss him off -Sometimes when the pair are alone and know they'll be alone for hours they will try to make the other break in a fun game of "who is the sappiest Ghoul today?". The games includes things like dancing to sappy/romantic music, giving the other a gift or twelve that they stashed back for this specific moment, affection attacks, and seeing who can say the sappiest, most love-filled declaration until they both break into laughter because of how cheesy and corny they're being -Dewdrop wouldn't admit it but he loves it when Mountain surprises him with bouquets of flowers. Seeing the variety of flowers each time wrapped so nicely and trimmed so perfectly makes his heart swell with love and appreciation for his Earth Ghoul. Sometimes he'll even get a little note attached to the ribbon around the flowers and he has kept each and every note he's gotten with them. He keeps them somewhere safe where nothing can damage them -Upon occasion Mountain has caught Dewdrop playing with his element out of boredom, summoning fire in his hand and making it dance in his palm and move around his hand like nothing. Each time Mountain catches it he asks if Dewdrop can show him more and the Fire Ghoul is always happy to show him what else he can do. Sometimes Mountain will randomly ask to see him play with fire and Dewdrop always does. -Though Dewdrop isn't one to express how much he loves Mountain in normal ways, he has his own ways. The biggest one is that whenever Mountain is away from the greenhouse he tries his best to sneak in and take care of the plants for him. The ones he knows need extra warmth? He'll warm them very carefully using just a gentle heatwave. Something is becoming overgrown? He'll trim them down to how he knows Mountain likes it. Multiple plants need to be watered? He'll spend a good chunk of time watering them and then giving them each a little kiss afterward. Some plants need to be repotted? He'll do it in a heartbeat and sweet-talk the plants while doing so. When Dewdrop is done he'll make sure he leaves no traces behind and skedaddle before Mountain gets back. Mountain still hasn't figured out who takes such good care of everything to this day, either -At the end of the day, Mountain and Dewdrop are the pair you'd never expect would work together but end up being the best pair you've ever seen. They love each other so much and will make sure that the other knows it, even if it means metaphorically stamping it on their forehead (Dewdrop did it to Mountain once, pressed his hand to Mountain's forehead and said "I just stamped you with how much I love you so you'll never forget". They both broke into a ten minute laughing fit afterward)

I love these. I especially love the idea of Mountain giving Dew flowers and Dew pretending it isn't his favorite thing in the entire world. I feel like Mountain knows though--and takes special care to pick ones that mean something to him in regards to Dew (even though Dew doesn't know anything about flowers and doesn't know what they mean). Also! Dew taking care of the greenhouses is just perfection. Especially considering I think Mountain is probably pretty wary about letting Dew go anywhere near them as a general rule. So I love that he has no idea who's doing it--but it's really just Dew all along. See, he CAN do nice things--just--you know--don't tell anyone or he'll burn you.

[the-guild-wars-help]

Do you have advice on developing proper skill rotations? I usually look on guildjen and metabattle for builds but they rarely have rotations explained. I ask because I just leveled reaper and i have no idea what i’m doing haha

Well, that question largely depends on the kind of content you're looking to get into - depending on whether you're gonna play mostly PvP or WvW, or instead aiming to do endgame, instanced PvE such as Fractals, Strikes and Raids, your builds and rotations will look vastly different.

Since you're talking about rotations, though, I'm gonna assume you're interested in instanced PvE - that is, Strike Missions, Raids or fractals of the mist. Admittedly, Metabattle is not a great ressource for those gamemodes. Instead, you could check out Discretize (for fractals) or Snowcrows (for raids + strikes) and browse their builds - both sites showcase the strongest builds available to each profession, with listed rotations, videos (usually) and additional tips and descriptions, as well as making note of the gear you'll need to get the most out of it.

Unfortunately, Reaper isn't in a very strong position currently, so neither site has a reaper build listed - that's just a fact of the meta, chances are the spec will improve in future balance patches. The flexible nature of GW2s builds does mean that there can be some very drastic variation in damage output between a top-tier build and a more mediocre one. Don't let that discourage you, though! If you really want to play reaper, there is this older build, in the buried archives of snowcrow's site. It's outdated of course, the numbers in the Video won't match up with current gameplay, and there may be more optimal choices to make, but the broad strokes should still work well enough, especially for open world gameplay.

Finally, some more specific advice: Practice! You can hone your skills in the special forces training area, where you can summon a big golem to fight. It will periodically tell you your damage output too - so you've got a vague idea how well you're doing. If you want to practice for group content, you'll want to set it up right - here is how the raiding community does it. This is a pretty solid introduction to the subject of raids in general!

Some good pointers while practicing: Some of your skills can interrupt others. Your heal skill will always do so, but sometimes weapon- or utility skills can do the same. Learn which ones those are, and try to avoid interrupting your casts. Conversely, try to never delay your casts - unless you specifically want to autoattack, your skills should go off back to back. To that end, skills (provided they aren't the interrupt-ey kind) can be queued - press the button before the prior cast ended and it'll enter the queue. Finally, make sure you're familiar with your traits and your gear. Some builds gain extra damage by attacking from the flank - make sure you're standing to the side or behind any bosses you fight, if that's the case. Some builds have personal buffs they want to maintain, which relies on certain skills they cast. If you know which parts of your build are important, you can focus on those!

For PvP, you can practice in the PvP lobby, and probably find some solid pointers on youtube - plenty of people have shared plenty of builds on there. That said, the word 'Rotation' in PvP means something entirely different - and I'm afraid I'm not super qualified to give advice on that.