Guild Wars 2

Posted this on Guru and got some positive responce there so I decided to share it here too…

As far as I understand the process of getting a legendary you currently need 4 items combined in a forge:

First
some exotic BASE WEAPON that can be world drop or luck with Mystic forge – Well… OK if i am not lucky myself i can surely buy one someday from TP thanks to the region-wide TP.

Second – Gift of Mastery
1) Explore all of the world to get Gift of Exploration – great I enjoy exploring
2) Fight in WvW or do jumping puzzles in WvW to get Gift of Battle – Again good enough for me WvW is unpredictable sometimes and in general fun
3) Spend some skill points – Well… OK
4) Grind approximately 525K karma for 250 obsidian shards – Uh? Really? Any tips how to do it in fun non-repetitive way? Any tip how to get it without some exploit abuse or non-fun repetitive grind?

Third Gift of Fortune
1) Gift of might – 250x blood, venom, totem, dust (all t6)
2) Gift of Magic – 250x fang, scale, claw, bone (all t6)
3) 250 Globs of Ecto
4) 77 Clovers that are rare transmute in Forge (consumes lots of gold skill points, Karma and Ecto)

Forth Gift of #legendary#
1) Superior sigil – well OK makes sense
2) 100 icy runestones – 100g np with that, not much excited though
3) Gift of something – 250 of some mats and a 400 craft – well at least craft is useful for once
4) Gift of something – 500 dungeon tokens + 100 lodestones + 250 of 2 t6 mats – grind + more grind. not excited

Then you go to forge and press a button.

But… Does it makes me a special snowflake now? Yes i got bunch of shiny pixels and i will get some whispers now and then but does this road to get a legendary gave me any fun or good memories to share? let me check my list…

World exploration – Fun
WvW badges – Fun (sometimes)

After that… Grind or Pay for mats or just plain Grind

No challenge of my skills, no epic events I must complete just spend lots of time and lots of money (or time again)

I dont mind spending time in a game but i do mind if it bores me, I want good memories about the time i spent and i want be able to share a tale of how i get this shiny sword.

I would like that getting a legendary actually required me to do some feat of strength like say do jumping puzzle(maybe all of them) with a tight time limit or under heavy enemy fire or something like that.

I would like that I could invite my friends to join me in my journey so they will be a part of my story of getting a legendary say beat a dungeon(HARD one) with a special hard to meet condition, that will actually takes some skill to do. Could be anything from time restriction to “not allowed to die or be downed” or “melee weapons only” and such.

And I want an epic event in the end when I combine everything in some special place with some nice visual effects and voice acting and my friends are near to share my experience. That should not be a “press a button to get your legendary” in the end.

And i want to be able to help my friend to participate in his journeys to legendary in some more fun way rather “I’ll help you farm”.

In general I want my quest for legendary be EPIC and worth to share EXPERIENCE.

There is nothing epic to share about how effective I can grind or how good I can exploit bugs or how good I am with my Visa or MasterCard.

//English is not my first language sorry for possible mistakes

What you listed as grinding isnt actually grinding.Its called playing the game.You play the game long enough either a few hours each day or 10+ hours but in the end you will have enough mats to craft your legendary.Instead of looking getting a legendary as a job look at it as playing the game for a long time and getting a nice reward at the end.

Seriously people and calling playing the game Grinding , STOP IT.Its a game , not a job or something else that forces you to get legendary etc.Play the game and have some fun.

You like WvWvW? Get your karma from that.You will be doing something you enjoy and karma will slowly fill up as you are having fun.

No. I would agree about a more special celebration when actually crafting it, but does anyone even have a legendary right now? For all we know there very well could be. As for the grinding part, I hate to do this, but I have to just call you out for QQing. It’s a legendary, you aren’t supposed to do a dungeon and have it drop, you’re supposed to work for it and it is supposed to take a long time, that is the entire design of the legendary crafting. Not everyone is supposed to get them, but everybody has access. If it sounds like too much work for you, then you won’t get one, plain and simple, but that isn’t to say that you can’t.

If you don’t feel like it would be fun to get an Legendary, why would you get one then?
Its not like you have to do it so you can progress or clear “the next raid content” (Like in many other mmo’s) Its a choice, if you want to look cool, than you will have to work for it.

I for once love, the idea with this very-high end-game goal. I’d love to get my hands on a legendary, and I feel it will be so much fun to spend months after months working towards a cool goal and not feel that I HAVE to do it to progress or see more content from the game.

I really like Anet’s approach with a lot of the things being hard and difficult, and takes time to complete, in this game.

If I would not work on a legendary I would end up spending up all the gold mats and kama on other stuff. You basically have to work forward to it or you will never reach the goal.

@Fatdude.8269

If I Just play the game long enough I will eventually have the mats true.

But thats the problem! I am not required to do anything special I just need to save up tons and tons of items gold and such. I do not need to make special efforts show any skill or overcome special challenges. It it is NOT A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE.

In the end it will be like “My legendary cost me 1,500 gold” or “6 months after the release I happen to collect needed mats and pressed a button to get my legendary”. It is NOT EPIC. It is not memoprable. It is not fun I can share with my friends and it is not an adventure.

I want my experience of getting a legendary be memorable. I want to remember perils and thrill as I progressed through the stages of aquiring the items need to create a weapon.

@Olkyr.4821
I blame my poor english. I dont mind putting effort in getting the legendary in fact I DO WANT to put effort in the process of getting it. I DO mind if all the effort is just a grind/collecting/buying with gold/crystals and not a fun experience.

It id Legendary! It deserves better then just bunch of resources un bulk quantities.

@Laddeus.4768
At the momen I do doubt I want to get the legendary. The process does not feel epic. The reward (weapon itself) will not remid me of anything special and therefore I am in doubt if i really want it.

I meen the whole personal story revolves around buildiung a legend of a hero fighting an elder dragons saving entire nations and such and I feel that a story of getting a legendary weapon worthy of such a hero should be at least of the same degree of epicness as the personal story itself. It should not be like “and then great hero bopught 100 barrels of blood 10 crates of bones and 20 bags of whatever else and dump them to the forge to get his trusty sword.”

It is not a LEGEND it id a SHOPPIUNG LIST.

EDIT Spell check

Just as the other people stated in this topic, the way I see it, is that you don’t have to get a legendary weapon. It’s not required. If you think the amount of collecting, grinding or whatnot is too much, then simply you are not entitled to receive a legendary item. Simple as that. I guess it’s an issue of the mindset developed while playing other MMO’s, where legendary items were common (Shadowmourne anyone?)

I agree however that perhaps you should be awarded with something more than the weapon itself. Something epic. Also, creation of certain parts, as well as the whole final product could be conducted in some special location, accessible only for people owning required items, or achievments. The vision of bringing all those hard earned items to Lions Arch and just, you know, like
“- Hey Zom, here ’ya go mate, I brought you all these things.
– Oh, thanks. Here, take this for your effort.
- Thanks, bye.”
Kinda takes away the pleasure from this moment.

Other idea would be to connect the creation of ingredients with instanced stories. I would feel then that the game actually responds and notices that I’m trying to do something big.

I am sure there will be more “legendary” equipment that comes out with expansions and whatnot that are tied to various quests and whatnot. I can imagine a DE that spans the entire globe and at the end it gives you a particular Legendary. Would be along the same lines as Dungeon equipment. I’m also sure they will tie some Legendaries to particular achievements in some way. That stuff will all come as they work towards developing the end game (when more people reach it)

There is so many posts now about the legendary and how it is no fun or a grind, its already tired to me

Forget the legendary just play the game. Create your own memories and have your own fun and you will find everything else just takes care of itself

People have to really really get out of this tunnelvision because all you are going to do is aggrevate yourself and others

Stop looking at 100g as a grind. Stop looking at 525k karma. Play the game do what you do in a normal day. Do what you enjoy doing. Then in a month look at what is in your bank. Look at your karma and WvW coin and how much money do you have?

People say I must grind this now I must get 100g now. So many of you need to relax and understand just play the game. This isnt wow this isnt a thing that can be go and grinded out in a short time and once you understand that and just play the game you’ll be fine

It’s really annoying how the standard reply to every thread is:

“Stop having goals. Just log in and…you know…be there. But don’t have any goals. Don’t try to get a particular item that you like, or level a certain craft or anything at all. Just stop having goals period.”

To an outsider, this game would seem insanely boring if all they saw were your constant posts on how you shouldn’t have any goals at all.

I agree with OP – the legendaries just take long and the only real archievement is the 100% map completion. I think there should more than one way to get legendaries (or later legendaries should use other components)

Personally, I desperately hate WvW. I have to overcome myself to do even the monthly archievements. I’ve completed them twice and from that 100 kills I got 6 badges of honor. 1% done. yay. Maybe make the Gift of Battle also attainable via sPvP?

Legendaries also punish altoholics, because Karma and dungeon tokens are soulbound. It takes the same time to collect 1,000,000 Karma and 500 tokens, no matter if I only play my main or use alts. I mean, even the gift of exploration is account bound and not soul bound.

I disagree with OP. These ridiculous requirements are what is going to make Legendary Weapons be very few and far between.

It does seem like a lot of things to do right now. But then again, so did Gwamm, and most of us got that in the end)

If legendarys were easy to get a few weeks after release, you’d only be complaining the game was too easy, and had no goals left for you.

Such things aren’t supposed to be a achievable in a day, or a week, but the accumulation of time and hard work over a period of months. Its that which makes it a Legendary achievement, after all.

@ many comments above

I dont want the process to be easy. I want it to be memorable. And by memorable i doesnt mee it should be less time consuming or less expensive or less demanding from my part. It is not “give me my legendary nao” post.

Right now 70% of the required mats for the legendary can be just bought with gold (that can in turn can be bought with real gems i.e. real money). Other parts is just grind or saving up Karma wich is also NOT MEMORABLE experience. That cheapens my experience ALOT.

In the end I will get my legendary by having 5% of fun (world exploration, Jumping puzzles in WvW) 25% of grind (karma) and 70% of grind or Visa Power.

Legendary should symbolize some sort of acomplishment that i can be proud of. I cant really be proud of farming or spending (gold or real money that doesnt matter) or saving up. That doesnt fit my personal story of a dragon slayer. And i want to be able to invite friends to share that experience like we did with our personal stories.

I think Everquest Epics were a little more in the OP’s alley. Those required pretty much everything, from solo-stuff to crafting, group and Raid stuff, and lots of traveling around the world. The fact that you needed a Raid for some parts probably does not fit into Anet’s philosophy, though they could replace Raids with DE bosses that drop a required item (the really big ones at the end of a meta-event).

Personally I would find it more fun to hunt down/participate in large DE meta-events in order to get an item(or even a chance to get one), then having to gather the insane amount of ingredients that are required now.

I think DE’s should play a bigger role in the cosmetic progression of a character anyway. Right now they just give sucky, generic loot, even if they are exotics. Or nothing at all. Itemization in GW2 still needs some work (and I am not talking about better statloot progression, btw, I know it is all about cosmetics in the endgame).

I agree with the OP. Grinding is not epic. Its a long drawn out chore.

As stated in a previous thread, you’re going to find this topic comes to Grinders vs Changers. There are those that want the grinding experience, and then there are those that want something different.

Ivanhalf.5623:

Second – Gift of Mastery
1) Explore all of the world to get Gift of Exploration – great I enjoy exploring
2) Fight in WvW or do jumping puzzles in WvW to get Gift of Battle – Again good enough for me WvW is unpredictable sometimes and in general fun
3) Spend some skill points – Well… OK
4) Grind approximately 525K karma for 250 obsidian shards – Uh? Really? Any tips how to do it in fun non-repetitive way? Any tip how to get it without some exploit abuse or non-fun repetitive grind?

I’ll tell you what, if you’ll do number 2 for me, I’ll do number 4 for you.

The WvW stuff is a serious impediment to my acquisition of a legendary. Everything else is most definitely do-able, but I just don’t know how I’ll manage the PvP component because I KITTEN HATE PvP. I’d gladly grind out a million karma, just to avoid that WvW element. Getting the map completion in the WvW zones is trying my patience enough as it is.

I really don’t understand why so many people are calling playing the game, grinding. What exactly are you going to do ‘after’ getting the Legendaries if you consider everything to be just grind.

How about, instead of rushing around the game to get 100% world completion, you take your time, experience ALL the dynamic events GW2 has to offer and see what’s left to be collected afterwards. If you’ve experience every single thing the game has to offer and need to do the whole lot several times, then you can call it ‘grind’. But until you’ve experienced everything the game has to offer it’s called ‘playing’.

My only issue with the recipe is the karma. Dungeons give no karma, only certain things give karma and a small amount of it.

How about I just make up a story for you per the Legendary you want, telling you why each part is necessary and what it contributes to the Legendary? It’d take awhile and some creativity, but I’d be up for it if it makes your experience enjoyable and makes the weapon seem more Legendary.

While crafting it may not be the most epic of experiences, it still separates those who care from those who don’t. It’s less skill, and more patience/farming. In the future, there may be different ways of getting such things, but as of now this is the only way.

Maybe you just need a Legend to go with each Legendary so that you actually know why it is named as such….it’d start something like this:

“The Juggernaut, originally and currently thought to be crafted by Balthazar himself, has been passed down through tale and story from generation to generation, child to cub, and back again through to the recently-acclaimed Sylvari. Said to be stolen and magically infused by his brother Menzies with dark and powerful energy, this legendary hammer continues to come up in conversation in the darkest of nights, when all those who fear power have taken slumber. The original hammer’s current whereabouts are a mystery; however, through continuous and difficult trials, Balthazar was eventually able to recreate this hammer at will, seeing that his brother’s infused powers were a vast improvement on his design. Feeling generous, he hinted at bits and pieces to his beloved Humans hoping to grant them such power to eradicate all others. However, against his will, the news of this legend spread throughout Tyria and beyond, and has once again been revealed. The hammer, while incredibly powerful, also gives its bearer the appearance of liquid metal, noting the powers of war, fire, and challenge, reflective of it’s original creator. Anyone who is able to create and master this Legendary Hammer, it is said, will have the power of Balthazar in their hands, and coursing throughout their entire body.”

I fondly remember the epic hunter quest for my hunter bow in the vanilla version of “Panda-fu”. I’d like to see something along that line, with significant difficulty, and mixed with crafting that would yield something powerful and memorable. How many people toted that thing with pride after completing it without cheesing some of the quest parts?

If ANET did something like that, along with a storyline, for each of its legendary weapon types or classes it would be pretty cool.

This thread kinda bothers me. My philosophy is that I’m going to play the game. If I manage to get enough supplies I’ll make a Legendary. If I’m close I’ll go out and buy some required stuff. I’m not here to make Legendary Weapons, I’m here to play the game and if I get a Legendary along the way, awesome. If not, oh, well.

I’d like to propose a question to those that say “I’m not worried about the requirements; I’ll get it by just playing the game”:

If you aren’t worried about requirements to make them and will just play the game, then why are you worried about people asking for a change to the system?

The process to get a Legendary weapon…well, it isn’t legendary. Clearly, its one of those things that’s just something somewhat absurd to do in the off-chance you’ve done everything else you cared to do.

That is, in any case, what I see it as. The process itself doesn’t look like anyone even slapped it with the concept of ‘Fun’, so I’d suppooooose the fun is supposed to be more in the having than in the path to the having?

Personally, I don’t see myself bothering anytime soon, maybe ever. If anyone ever does, and I know very well some probably already have, cheers to them, says me.

I’ll be over here, with my merely exotic weapons, doing what I enjoy. If I ever get so bored as that going on the Lolcrawl of grinding up a Legendary weapon starts to look appealing…

…by yimminy, I’ll go outside, or play some other game, ’cause daaaayum that looks like a whole lot of “I hate my life” in one package.

But, that is, of course, just me. Cheers to those that look at it and go “Omaigawd I must do this it will be so AWESOME!”

I ain’t that guy.

I have a wife and 3 kids. I work long hours during the week and have to watch the 2-year-old on weekends while my wife works. I try to play as much as I can, and so far I’ve managed about 150 hours since the headstart weekend. This isn’t a lot (average of 5 hours/day is more than some can do, but a lot less than the people that chase the grind)—that was a week of game time in college. I haven’t been grinding, I hoard more than I sell on the TP. Lets look at where I stand relative to a legendary:

I have 6 exotics, 1 was a drop, 5 crafted. I’ve consumed 25 ectos while making gear to wear, and 4 more while leveling JC. I have a couple in the bank. This means I’ve acquired about 30 ectos. This is 12% of a stack.

I have about 45k karma. I’ve spent several thousand on recipies. This is about 8% of the karma goal.

While making my armor I’ve consumed 20 t6 materials, and have about 30 more in the bank. This is 10% of the 2-stack requirement.

I’ve explored approximately 50% of the world.

I expect that I’ll have a legendary somewhere around 1500-2000 hours played. I don’t plan to grind, just stockpile resources like I have been and get it eventually. When I do finally equip it, I’m not going to think back on days of karma farming, or running around zones with a pickaxe, I’m going to think about the places I explored with my family (they play too, time permitting). I’m going to think about the people I met running dungeons, the friends I’ve made, and how I’ve enjoyed relaxing in such a well-crafted world for the past year(s) of my life. I intend to help my wife, children, and close friends create theirs as well—simply by playing the game with them. Everything you do moves you closer, all you have to do is set a goal and allocate resources to reach it.

Fildydarie.1496:

This means I’ve acquired about 30 ectos. This is 12% of a stack.

This is about 8% of the karma goal.

This is 10% of the 2-stack requirement.

I’ve explored approximately 50% of the world.

I expect that I’ll have a legendary somewhere around 1500-2000 hours played.

ARGH, DON’T MAKE IT SOUND LIKE IT’S DOABLE.

But I agree – I plan to just play the game, level each class to 80 and maybe there will be other legendary recipies released. Something with less grind and less WvW, hopefully.

The above posts are off a little bit
What you need to craft the Legendary

Gift of mastery
Bloodstone Shard + 250x Obsidian Shard + Gift of Exploration + Gift of Battle
Gift of Fortune
77x Mystic Clover + 250x Globs of Ectoplasm + Gift of Magic + Gift of Might
Gift of “Weapon Name”
Crafting Gift 1 + Crafting Gift 2 + 100x Icy Runestones + Superior Sigil of (various)

100% world Exploration
~1.155 Million Karma
~550 Ectos
~300 Mystic coins
~380 SP or more if you have to combine to make lodestones
100- 200 Lodestones or100-200 Orbs or 5 boxes of fun depending on weapon or other combinations
250 stack of 11- 15 different Mats
1 Superior Sigil
~140 gold or more if you have to combine to make lodestones
500 dungeon specific tokens
500 WvWvW badges
1 Specific Exotic Weapon

77 Clovers that are rare transmute in Forge (expect to spend around the amount below or more to obtain the 77 clovers)
——300 obs shard x2100 karma = 630k
——300 mystic coins
——300 ectos
——300 crystal from miyani for 180SP (5 crystals per 3SP)

What I have so far
73 % of 100% world Exploration
67k of the ~1.155 Million Karma ( bought all leatherworker and Hunter Recipes top 2 tiers, also bought some karma Armor – Karma spent 125k)
12 of the ~550 Ectos (spent the rest crafting around 35)
around 67 of ~300 Mystic coins – have not spent any of the mystic coins i have gained.
I have 89 of ~380 SP (But i have all the skills including elites)
maybe 20 of each top rare so far and around 100-250 of the gathered ones since this is tier 6 items out of 250 stack of 11- 15 different Mats including rares
I probabaly have it -1 Superior Sigil
12 of the ~140 gold

done – 500 WvWvW badges

I think the hardest part is going to be the karma, Ectos, and the gold.
Most time consuming will be Karma, Skill Points, and Mystic coins – from daily and monthly achievements, map completions, so forth…..

I think I understand where you’re coming from. Everything you do at end game is going to be a grind, no matter how you look at it. It’s just a matter of does it feel like a grind. Running around with your friends pawning NPCkitten in a dungeon a few hours a night doesn’t feel like a grind, or smacking around a world boss regularly. Running around in WvW day after day get’s to be rather grindy after while, no matter how exciting pvp can get. Worse if it get aggravating. Running around mindlessly slaughtering everything that moves in a zone just plain boring., no matter how you present it.

On the flip side of the coin, I remember how hard it was to get legendaries in WoW. If you weren’t in a top end raiding guild, odds are you would never see one, and they didn’t just pick anyone off the cobblestones. This way, no matter if you have friends playing the game or you’re flying solo, anyone can eventually get a legendary, and that’s what I think AN was shooting for. As much as I admit I’m for that, or at least certainly not against it, I have to agree with you, running dungeons with a bunch of buds was always the best experiences.