Guild Wars 2

I, though not by choice, would be classified as a casual gamer. This being due to the fact I am a full time student and also work almost full time, so I do not have the time to spend hours everyday to grind away. As the economy stands now, I feel as if it punishes the casual gamer or the gamer that does not have X amount of hours to put into the game every week. I am sure Anet is doing their best to try and fix this, but the price fluctuations (primarily increases) for mats, weapon skins, precursors, armor skins, etc. is becoming ridiculous. I understand that Legendaries were meant to reward dedicated players with the time and effort they put into the game, and I can completely understand that, but even exotic prices have gone up incredibly, and even though they Lost Shores patch said that there is an increase in rare and exotic drops rates, I have actually witnessed the opposite. I have gotten less drops in general (drops being any weapon or armor), let alone rare/exotics, after the patch than before, and this is taking into account I have invested in MF gear since and usually have 100+ MF (Which should be a displayed stat but that is a whole different issue). This makes me wanting to craft the weapons/armor I want near impossible, since without rare/exotics you have no ectos, unless you have enough to dish out 32-36s per, which in return requires grind and a lot of time.

I understand that they want to push Fractals, but the drop-rate differences between regular dungeons, regular mobs/world bosses, and Fractals is substantially different. I used to run around with the zerg in Orr when I had some free time because it required no time commitment and be able to get drops and leave whenever I please. Now if I do not have 1-2 hours to find a group and run Fractals, I will most likely not be able to make money. The diminishing returns do not help contribute one bit, either. I get why they implemented it, and it is to help fight the bots as well, but now with almost every bot gone, I feel like it just hurts the players.

Also, I never even feel like trying my luck with the Mystic Forge due to this. If I get a rare or exotic, If I can make a profit on it, I TP it, otherwise I would much rather gamble and try to pull an ecto or two from the item rather than throw 4 of the same rarity and get back an item that is worth the same as one of the four thrown in. This is a big bummer, for me, since I expected myself testing my luck with the forge a lot when it was announced, but with everything being so expensive, it is probably the most illogical thing to do imo.

In short, I just feel like to keep up with the economy, whether it may be to make a legendary, crafting, or other exotic skins in general, exploring is not good enough anymore. You must grind specific areas for hours to days to get a chance at what you want. Am I the only one that feels this way? Just wanted to share what I have been feeling and get other opinions on it.

If your group is good, you can finish a fractal in an hour (slightly more if you’re doing the Jade Maw one too).

I really hate to bring this up again, but you can actually make money off of just playing the TP. Things required are some capital (more = better ROI) and DIY research on various “markets” aka the item being sold on the TP itself.

There are things you can do daily to add to your economic gains that don’t take a lot of time.

1. don’t play the mystic forge, unless you understand the odds of the drops it’s not going to go well for you.

2. don’t think about legendaries for yourself, start thinking about them instead as an opportunity for economic gain. Even the folks who play a lot are largely months and months out from getting legendaries and they’re not at all nessesary, but what IS a good thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the items that go into making the legendaries and where they can be found. If you’re clearing one of these areas with your main character, make a little side trip, send an extra 15 min in X area and you increase your chances of making a lot of $$.

3. if you’re not going to craft sell EVERYTHING. Do not Deposit all Collectables, sell them on the TP if they’re selling for more than 15% above cost and to a vender if they’re not. Everything goes. Also empty out your collectables bank of everything that’s not account bound, you probably have a few gold kicking around in there. You will be suprised how much you pull in when you’re not hitting deposit collectables.

4. 3 salvage kits – Crude, Black Lion, Master. (if you have no black lions then just crude and master). You use the Black Lion for anything that has an upgrade you want to salvage (if no BLSC then use the Master), the Master for anything with ectos or high value components, the crude for everything else. You will save money and maximize your salvage gain.

5. never pay to teleport to Lion’s Arch or any major city -> hop to WvW and use the portal from here (this can save you up to half a gold a day).

6. clear the world. You pick up a lot of items especially clearing out high level zones that are worth a good bit. Sell them all!

7. never pass up an opportunity to fight. Running past all the mobs is running past all the monies.

8. try and get the daily achievement every day you can, those Karma jugs if you use a Karma booster and a karma flag when you take them can add up to a LOT.

If you’ve got level 80 chars you should be able to outfit yourself in exotic level appropriate kit via several means, either gold, karma or dungeons and none of these take a huge time commitment (dungeons being the worst). Legendaries? Those are for the crazy fanatics though and exploiting their zeal is the best way to make yourself some guild wars gold.

@TabMorte

Great post. #5 was new to me! Great idea.. free port to WvW, free port back to city.

Clarification RE salvage kits: use Master over BL unless the upgrade you’re trying to get is worth more than 5x a salvage.

E.g., Right now a BL kit goes for about 5g20s, so it’s 21s per salvage. Therefore I use master on any upgrade worth less than 1g and BL on any upgrade worth more. If it’s close, though, and you’re short on money, the BL is “safer” even if it costs a bit more.

Thanks for the advice guys!

I guess one problem with me is I am a hoarder, but partly due to the fact that I am saving my crafting mats to level up various crafts on my alts (Which I actually planned out as to save the most money).

And as it turns out, TabMorte, I actually do most of the things you say. I tend to run past a lot of stuff recently since for the time I have to play, and for what I want to accomplish in that time, fighting monsters and getting items worth 10-40c takes up a lot of it with minimal gain, though any copper is good copper should be my mentality. I just hope they fix this drop rate issue, if it is one, or just open the Mad King’s Realm again so I actually have a chance at getting decent drops lol.

Duplicated.4715:

I really hate to bring this up again, but you can actually make money off of just playing the TP. Things required are some capital (more = better ROI) and DIY research on various “markets” aka the item being sold on the TP itself.

A nit pick because I’m in a nit picking mood. The more capital you have, the WORSE your ROI is on the TP. When you have 1g it’s a LOT easier and faster to double your money than if you have 100g. Of course, you’ll make more gold per day with 100g than with 1g.

And yeah, I saved my BLSK in the bank for any upgrades I want. Black Lion Keys are too expensive for me to gamble on the chests I have lying around hoping to get anything worthwhile like the SK lol.

I play 20-30 hours a week (I think that’s the high end of casual) and I am always broke. I do all of the above, and every copper I get is going into exotic gear for my characters. My primary has all exotic armor/jewelry and two weapons. My secondary only has 4 pieces of exotic armor and the pace has slowed greatly on that one. I don’t mind a little work, but if the latest trend continues it will get to grindy for me. The dungeons are fun and a nice change from killing Risen, but standing around LFG is time I am not making any money. Most nights I just can’t sign up for a dungeon because of the LFG time plus unknown dungeon time.

Grinding for a few hours and NOT getting a rare is really depressing since Ecto’s cost so much now. Oh Joy, another porous bone!

Karan Patel.4829:

Thanks for the advice guys!

I guess one problem with me is I am a hoarder, but partly due to the fact that I am saving my crafting mats to level up various crafts on my alts (Which I actually planned out as to save the most money).

If you’re not crafting right now though, you’re basically spending the money any how to keep them by opting out of the profits. You can always always always go back and farm more crafting mats later if you’re not going to use them now. When I got really strict about only keeping mats of the craft and level I’m working on now, I started to generate a lot more coin. If I need something I just look up on the wiki where to get it and send my 80 out to pick it up for the crafter (though this is more time consuming but I ‘fill my orders’ in the morning while I’m having my coffee as it’s brainless work).

Elric Of Melnibone.4781:

I play 20-30 hours a week (I think that’s the high end of casual) and I am always broke. I do all of the above, and every copper I get is going into exotic gear for my characters. My primary has all exotic armor/jewelry and two weapons. My secondary only has 4 pieces of exotic armor and the pace has slowed greatly on that one. I don’t mind a little work, but if the latest trend continues it will get to grindy for me. The dungeons are fun and a nice change from killing Risen, but standing around LFG is time I am not making any money. Most nights I just can’t sign up for a dungeon because of the LFG time plus unknown dungeon time.

Grinding for a few hours and NOT getting a rare is really depressing since Ecto’s cost so much now. Oh Joy, another porous bone!

My thoughts exactly. I find the dungeons very fun but with limited amount of time to play, it is a waste of time always trying to find a group. www.gw2lfg.com has helped alleviate some of the stress of finding a group, but that method also isnt perfect due to it not being as wide spread/known to the whole gw2 community and more likely than not I end up finding people who have their groups filled. This, though, could be solved with a cross server party search tool.

TabMorte.5297:

If you’re not crafting right now though, you’re basically spending the money any how to keep them by opting out of the profits. You can always always always go back and farm more crafting mats later if you’re not going to use them now. When I got really strict about only keeping mats of the craft and level I’m working on now, I started to generate a lot more coin. If I need something I just look up on the wiki where to get it and send my 80 out to pick it up for the crafter (though this is more time consuming but I ‘fill my orders’ in the morning while I’m having my coffee as it’s brainless work).

That is very true. I will most likely sell everything I’m not using asap. I just hate the grind, I don’t mind some of it, but I would much rather explore and get drops while exploring then having to grind, but with how loot has been dropping lately, I feel it is inevitable I will need to. But again, you do have a very good point.

TabMorte.5297:

5. never pay to teleport to Lion’s Arch or any major city -> hop to WvW and use the portal from here (this can save you up to half a gold a day).

Actually, no need to go wvw, it could have a queues and takes a while to load.
Just hop in the pvp lobby in the mists and run towards the LA portal a little further.

Respectfully, the OP doesn’t want to learn how to use the forge in any depth, doesn’t want to play the market, and has limited time to play. But he’s still upset that he can’t afford the gear he wants. And I assume he has some high-end wants.

Gear is, for many players, the end goal of a MMO. It’s the most tangible form of progress. Any time a casual player tells me the game should be fun for casuals I agree. I’ve been one myself at different times. But when a casual player tells me they are upset because some goal or achievement seems out of reach to them, I have to wonder what the heck they actually want. If you could “finish” the game easily and on casual hours, what’s left for anyone else to do? Are you really so upset that there’s stuff for other people to do beyond what you have time for?

GW2 is incredibly friendly to casual players. Real progression and interesting gameplay is available in short bites. Gear isn’t a gateway to power. For relatively little money, a character at level 80 can be as powerful as the best geared character with fancy exotic skins and a legendary weapon. Ascended gear may have messed with that a bit, but let’s leave that alone for now. And despite the fact that you can be as powerful as any other end game character on limited time, now you’re cheesed you can’t get the -skin- you want? Man, you must really resent people who play more and better than you having anything at all.

You can play a lot or you can play well. Both can contribute to success. In economic terms, you don’t seem interested in either. And that’s fine. No one is saying you need to get rich except you. I know many happy and poor players. But complaining that things are out of reach is just absurd. That’s a function of being a casual player in a game where others aren’t.

Good luck.

Well, you can play this game without spending any gold. If you want a free exotic armors and weapons, you can try to find a group for a dungeon, which gives you the stats you wanted, and, at the end of each dungeon, you will receive a very good silvers. For instance, CoF gives you 26 silvers.

If you have less than two hours a day for this game, you should travel to Cursed Shore. Many events, Grenth, Arah Gate, Plinx, etc.., that you can farm and give you a very handsome rewards (MF gears are recommended). I’ve been farming Grenth chain events, and i got so much loots from it.

To be honest, you don’t really need golds for this game beside repairs unless you want to spend on crafting materials or legendary. Also, golds are easy to get right now as long as you know where to farm it, in my opinion.

Just think about it. The amount of time you spend in guild wars 2, would it be considered a casual time investment in any other hobby, say for example football, tennis, drawing, going out? Most likely you play about an hour a day. Name any other past time with that time commitment that would classify such a commitment as “casual”?

Being hardcore in MMO games is not possible unless you’re neither student nor working. That’s a cold, hard fact. Don’t fret over it. We still have the option of having the “hardcore” work for us by buying gems, and seeing how the gem prices are on the rise, the casual position becomes ever more comfortable. For me it now takes less than an hour of work to do the equivalent of a week of grinding. Not bad imho.

you are doing it wrong. play and enjoy the game. do only activities you like. you don’t need gold anyway.

marnick.4305:

Just think about it. The amount of time you spend in guild wars 2, would it be considered a casual time investment in any other hobby, say for example football, tennis, drawing, going out? Most likely you play about an hour a day. Name any other past time with that time commitment that would classify such a commitment as “casual”?

Books, movies and TV come to mind.

The examples that you provided are pretty bad. Neither football nor tennis is a solo hobby: Football requires a full team of people whereas tennis requires an opponent. Doesn’t mean you cannot practice your techniques on your own, though. Drawing, on the other hand, is a creative hobby. Most creative efforts cannot be forced, so assigning a consistent daily amount to it would be hard. It’s still possible though, as you could easily decide that you’ll pick a random photo from DeviantArt every day and do a version of it in your preferred medium of drawing.

Being hardcore in MMO games is not possible unless you’re neither student nor working. That’s a cold, hard fact. Don’t fret over it. We still have the option of having the “hardcore” work for us by buying gems, and seeing how the gem prices are on the rise, the casual position becomes ever more comfortable. For me it now takes less than an hour of work to do the equivalent of a week of grinding. Not bad imho.

That depends a lot, actually. There’s plenty of people who have jobs that only require a few hours of work a day, if even that. As for students, it comes down to the university you’re going to, not to mention your personal ability.

Dungeons other than fractals makes money easily and effectively. I do Ascalon catacombs runs a lot, almost daily. So if you want you can drop a whisper when I’m on and we can form a party from Lions Arch overflow so you can start getting gold.

OP: I think the solution for casuals was always intended to be real money purchases of gems.

“I tend to run past a lot of stuff recently since for the time I have to play, and for what I want to accomplish in that time, fighting monsters and getting items worth 10-40c takes up a lot of it with minimal gain”
This is the thing that kills me, and I completely agree with you: it sucks when you don’t have much time to play, but you feel like if you just play the way you want, you’re “wasting time” because every hour played that isn’t getting more gold means you’re falling behind. And thanks to the global nature of prices, you’re absolutely competing with every other hardcore player out there, casual or no. Your choices are: play more, pay more, or grind when you have the time. It’s frustrating.

I started this game assuming I would buy gems with gold to round out my bank and character slots. If you’re a casual player, this is effectively impossible. Gem prices continue to rise at a rate that I cannot keep up with: every time I can finally afford a new character slot, gems cost 150% of what they did. My choices become: pay real money, or don’t ever get the basic stuff that you’d need in order to experience more of the game. Apparently I’m too casual to participate.

This thread has been a very interesting read.

I guess it all depends on what you want from a game. Personally, I want an experience that will take me out of the every day world of work (grinding) and status being determined by wealth and possessions (gold and equipment). I want to be a hero who is rewarded for his deeds (see fairy tales in general). Imagine for a moment one of King Arthur’s knights having to engage in farming for a few weeks to buy a better sword, or having to learn how to make one, before setting out on a quest. I imagine he would work very hard practicing his swordsmanship, but that’s a different thing. Or a Samurai doing anything but training, fighting and accepting the rewards provided by those he protects?

So far (and I’m up to level 55 or so, so that may change) I’ve managed to enjoy the game immensely with a minimum of grinding and no crafting whatsoever. I just play, trying not to repeat events too often (boring), and sell everything I get that I don’t immediately need. So far I have never (apart from at the very beginning before I worked out a few things) lacked enough in-game money to buy better level equipment than is available through vendors or drops, so I’m always a bit ahead of the level I’m at. I’ll add that I’ve never had more than 3 gold at any one time.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens as I progress.

(None of the above is intended as criticism of people who prefer a different approach to the game.)

Karan Patel.4829:

I, though not by choice, would be classified as a casual gamer. This being due to the fact I am a full time student and also work almost full time, so I do not have the time to spend hours everyday to grind away. As the economy stands now, I feel as if it punishes the casual gamer or the gamer that does not have X amount of hours to put into the game every week. I am sure Anet is doing their best to try and fix this, but the price fluctuations (primarily increases) for mats, weapon skins, precursors, armor skins, etc. is becoming ridiculous. I understand that Legendaries were meant to reward dedicated players with the time and effort they put into the game, and I can completely understand that, but even exotic prices have gone up incredibly, and even though they Lost Shores patch said that there is an increase in rare and exotic drops rates, I have actually witnessed the opposite. I have gotten less drops in general (drops being any weapon or armor), let alone rare/exotics, after the patch than before, and this is taking into account I have invested in MF gear since and usually have 100+ MF (Which should be a displayed stat but that is a whole different issue). This makes me wanting to craft the weapons/armor I want near impossible, since without rare/exotics you have no ectos, unless you have enough to dish out 32-36s per, which in return requires grind and a lot of time.

I understand that they want to push Fractals, but the drop-rate differences between regular dungeons, regular mobs/world bosses, and Fractals is substantially different. I used to run around with the zerg in Orr when I had some free time because it required no time commitment and be able to get drops and leave whenever I please. Now if I do not have 1-2 hours to find a group and run Fractals, I will most likely not be able to make money. The diminishing returns do not help contribute one bit, either. I get why they implemented it, and it is to help fight the bots as well, but now with almost every bot gone, I feel like it just hurts the players.

Also, I never even feel like trying my luck with the Mystic Forge due to this. If I get a rare or exotic, If I can make a profit on it, I TP it, otherwise I would much rather gamble and try to pull an ecto or two from the item rather than throw 4 of the same rarity and get back an item that is worth the same as one of the four thrown in. This is a big bummer, for me, since I expected myself testing my luck with the forge a lot when it was announced, but with everything being so expensive, it is probably the most illogical thing to do imo.

In short, I just feel like to keep up with the economy, whether it may be to make a legendary, crafting, or other exotic skins in general, exploring is not good enough anymore. You must grind specific areas for hours to days to get a chance at what you want. Am I the only one that feels this way? Just wanted to share what I have been feeling and get other opinions on it.

I completely agree!! It is extremely hard to play the game as I have to buy armor, weapons, way-points, upgrades and I’m even avoiding leveling up at all costs as I can’t afford the armor I need to stand any chance of survival in my level zone. It’s easier to make a profit in real life than in Guild Wars 2!! For crying out loud Arena Net I play Guild Wars 2 to relax and have fun not to have another penniless pocket I have to stress about!!

Exactly, you should use your time wisely on the activity you like, and this game doesn’t require you to spend golds, too.

Hals Warrior.9863:

I completely agree!! It is extremely hard to play the game as I have to buy armor, weapons, way-points, upgrades and I’m even avoiding leveling up at all costs as I can’t afford the armor I need to stand any chance of survival in my level zone. It’s easier to make a profit in real life than in Guild Wars 2!! For crying out loud Arena Net I play Guild Wars 2 to relax and have fun not to have another penniless pocket I have to stress about!!

Playing the game… you’re doing it wrong.

This game isn’t meant to go Leeroying in, hacking and slashing all enemies. The higher level area you go to, the more strategy comes in. You need to play smart, learn enemy “tells”, and evade attacks while counter attacking. GW2 is a game of skill. If all else fails, group with people and have them do all the damage.