And the WvW video I linked shows a D/D elementalist fighting in close combat...

Well, on one hand you've got good players that have been playing for example elementalist since beta, and are still learning new stuff. And then we got you who says "I played it a short while, got it all figured out. That in the videos there can't be done".

There is an old chinese proverb (according to the internet) that says something like "Those that say it can't be done should get out of the way of those doing it" .

You're correct that 100 blades is the highest damage scaling single skill in the game, in a direct stand-alone comparison. But that's not what's being compared. Besides, 100 blades is not a good skill. It got ramp-up time, it roots you, and it spend a lot of time delivering those hits. And if you miss the last, well... Most of your "burst" just went down the toilet. And most of the other greatsword skills are pretty low on damage.

What the elementalist in the first video did was comboing several things together resulting in very high damage very fast. One of the attacks he showed there was first using Burning Speed to engage, set the target on fire (and hopefully give a crit, which have a 60% chance of causing vulnerability), then start throwing Fire Grab, switch to water attunement while casting, trigger the weapon swap sigil - thus guaranteeing a crit for Flame Grab - and get extra damage bonuses. If target is vulnerable, and he got his boons up (which he usually have) that can be over 50%. Plus the Fire Grab bonus for target being on fire. With 110% extra critical damage. And while that's a potent combo, it is just one he got in his arsenal. He mentions that just by switching to air attunement he drops a lightning bolt on target that can crit for 7k damage. And that always crits, because of the sigil.

And the lightning hammer video is as un-gimmicky and simple as you can get. It's based around the high damaged auto attack on the hammer. Then it's just to build around max'ing it (like using the water attunement dmg boost on vulnerable foes) and start swinging for massive damage.

And the third WvW video shows that elementalists are quite capable in pvp. In fact, D/D elementalists are considered borderline OP by many in PvP.

In beta 1 and 2 he was tougher, yes. Not beta 3, and certainly not after release. Complexity and difficulcy have been rising steadily, as people have learned the system better and anet have added new stuff. There's a big community around the game, and it's only getting bigger. You are, in fact, wrong about every single point you're making.

Even the videos. Which you clearly haven't even seen. The first build use the intelligence signet with attunement swaps, damage boosting traits, crit damage gear, and the cast time delays on spells to output burst damage that makes 100 blades look like a joke, and with better survivability and low recharge. You'd have known it was not even remotely near your description if you just saw the first minute of it. Of course, it would require pushing more than 2-3 buttons. And it's a year old.

The second video uses a build focused mostly around a conjured weapon, namely lightning hammer. The third video shows pvp with a dual dagger elementalist. You can see warriors trying 100 blades there. You can see them failing. You can also see that he uses more than 2-3 buttons.

Please mate, fact check what you're saying.

A few pointers: You talking about soloing the behe 20% is kinda silly. That guy have never been a challenge. And then you compare that (which is probably the least threatening world event in the game) with the (at that time) hardest one.. Now most of the world events provide a small challenge, and Tequatl is kinda.. off the hook. And your 100blade spvp build is practically useless if you play against people who *can* play - which is most PvP'ers these days.

And that "PR" anecdote did happen. First of all, they were new players, second those plush griffons do hit quite hard, and have more HP than a usual mob that level. Knowing that, and the fact that they're melee, I also knew how to effectively take them down with the tools I had. They didn't.

If you want to try a real challenge, you could try logging in to your gw2 account, and go fight the Kol Skullsmasher a bit. Or visit the new Tequatl :)

As for ele damage dealing.. Got these video recommendations from my guild's ele expert :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVqU9-Rrack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUe8xg2yPXI

I also found this WvW vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsUpFnBY-_o

Do you even have a max level character?

My first lvl 80 was a warrior. I know perfectly well what they're capable of. My second lvl 80 was in fact an elementalist. I also know perfectly well what THEY are capable of.

Both are deadly in their own way. And D/D zerk elementalist can kill just as quick as a 100derps warrior, and if the player is good, at considerably lower risk of dying.

I've played since beta. Over 1600 hours, actually.. Warriors are the easiest to play, but they're also the most limited. And they're really not overpowered. At the risk of sounding elitist, if you really think that, then I guess you're lacking experience in the game.

The combat is actually pretty complex, but relies on timing, resource usage and combinations rather than having many buttons.

An anecdote:

I didn't tell that story to brag how good I am, I am telling it because it's a really good example of the difference between a player who knows the game and the combat system, and someone who don't.

Well... No, not really. Yes, you usually have 1-2 skills as main damage dealers, but there are very very few useless skills. The others are more used to amplify your damage skills, keeping you alive, and controlling the fight. Even if they're not dealing damage directly, they're vital for playing well.

As for your Elementalist / Warrior comparison.. I have both (actually, got all but Necro at 80), and while my warrior deals more direct damage, and can handle more hits.. My elementalist can take down groups of 10+ mobs. In leveling gear. If I played well, without even taking one hit. My warrior can't handle that even with exotics and a very tanky build (enough to go face-to-face with some lowlevel champs). Same with my thief. When played perfectly, my thief deals incredible damage and is near unkillable. Can take on huge amounts of mobs, and pretty beefy ones too. But have to be played very carefully, no room for mistakes.

Sure, warriors can both deal and handle a lot of damage.. But they have much less control over the combat, which means they HAVE to rely on that. So in those situations where most other classes can control the situation and avoid damage by not giving the mobs a chance to hit, warrior mostly have to rely on being the last one going down in the brawl. That's the price warriors pay for their damage and armor.

Now, don't get me wrong, warrior is one of my favorite classes (other one is thief), and it's mostly easy cruise control to play when doing normal stuff. But it does have it's limitations compared to the other classes.

You've fallen into the trap of seeing security as either black or white. Self signed certs are dark gray enough that for you it's black, and thus the same as unencrypted HTTP. And CA verified cert is light gray enough to be white, and thus secure.

The truth is that self signed is much better than unencrypted, and CA verified - while even better - still have enough problems to drive a truck through. Sideways.

Which is why people are talking about DANE, which is even lighter gray than CA validated, but still far from perfect.

You can't turn security into black and white. It's a scale, with various shades pf gray.

You might like this draft then : http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-nottingham-http2-encryption-01

I think it's a good example, personally. Because you create a false dilemma in the voter's minds. I've seen many who say "I should vote for [minor party], but I can't waste my vote because then [the other major party] could win, and that would be terrible".

And the media seem to do an excellent job of polarizing those two parties, and making people feel they have to choose sides.

Actually, I think we got that covered.

The thing I don't like about the US democracy is that it's essentially false dilemma based. Yes, you do have more than two parties, but "everyone knows" that they will never get elected, and you can't let the other side win, so you "have" to vote on one of the two big parties.

How much of a democracy is it when the choice is that limited? It's a soft limit, but still an effective limit.

If North Korea let the people select from, say Kim Jong-un and (while he was alive) Kim Jong-il. Would that then be a democracy? If they technically allowed other people to run for Dear Leader, but manipulated the populace to only consider the two main candidates, would it then be democracy?

I see, thanks for the answer :)

At least you have thought about things, and seem to have a good understanding of the mechanics, and have reasons for the changes. Which is more than sadly too many who develop crypto code have.

As for the changes you've made, I haven't looked at them closely so I won't even try to discuss them :)

The only thing I can say about it is the basic gut feeling that any novel approach to crypto should be distrusted until verified by time and experienced people :)

A bit late to the party, but.. There are some things I'm curious about.

Wouldn't different IV (or nonce in CTR mode) effectively stop that potential problem?

And from another of your posts that I was wondering about:

A bit change in CTR mode shouldn't alter anything past it's block, from what I understand. There's no state that's moved on from one block to the other (well, except the counter, but that's not affected by the block data).

And again, wouldn't different IV / Nonce effectively stop that problem?

http://linux.die.net/man/1/tcptraceroute

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/gutsy/man1/paratrace.1.html

8. Add option for custom CSS?