Guild Wars 2

Right now one of the biggest turnoffs for the game is the huge grind that stands between hitting level 80 and getting the gear that puts you on an even playing field with everyone else.

This thread is only about non-cosmetic non-prestige non-special gear. Some people think it takes too long to get the special cosmetic prestige skins from dungeons takes too long but that is a completely different conversation. This thread is about getting people on an even playing field in terms of stats and the enormous grind it requires after the recent changes to the game.

When I hit level 80 and got my set of exotics I noticed my damage in WvW nearly trippled and I could win fights 1v4 easily on several occasions. Now that more people are getting exotic sets things are evening out. Unfortunately, due to the huge increase in grinding required to get a set of basic exotics, it will be extremely hard for players who are just hitting level 80 or new players to get on an even playing field.

Here is a famous segment from a blog post put up by Colin Johanson titled “Is it fun?” a few months ago

When your game systems are designed to achieve the prime motivation of a subscription-based MMO, you run the risk of sacrificing quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time. You get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level, loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end, raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play, thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support, the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.

But what if your business model isn’t based on a subscription? What if your content-design motivations aren’t driven by the need to create mechanics that keep people playing as long as possible? When looking at content design for Guild Wars 2, we’ve tried to ask the question: What if the development of the game was based on…wait for it…fun

This is a great example of the philosophy that got people to want to play Guild Wars 2. Stepping away from the classic MMO formula by promising to remove the gear treadmill for character advancement and instead moving the long term goals to cool looking prestige gear is what drew a lot of people to the game.

But then why does the gear treadmill still exist for basic character advancement from non-prestige gear?

(continued)

(continued)

This is what I would need for my alt to cross the advancement gap between getting to level 80 and getting even stat gear:

Glob of Ectoplasm x 55
Orichalcum Ore x 222
Ruby Orb x 25
Powerful Blood x 35
Ancient Wood Log x 30
Gossamer Scrap x 74
Spool of Gossamer Thread x 130

This adds up to over 40 gold worth of materials going by the recent trading post rates(before it went down)

This is the “easiest” set of even stat gear in terms of time and money investment to obtain. You can add another 5.5 gold to that if I want the backpack with a jewel too.
This obviously creates a huge wall for most of the players in the game. I don’t want to go through the treadmill and grind all of that out just to get my character on the same level as other characters. Since the game was advertised for having the long term grinding only exist for prestige gear, I don’t understand why it has to take so long to get basic non-prestige gear.

Hopefully these observations are clear enough to illustrate the need for a different system to get even stats at max level.

There are probably dozens of ways to do this. One option could be to keep the current crafted exotic as a prestige set that takes a long time or a lot of money to obtain an create a more reasonable alternative with some new method of obtaining the recipes.
Another method would be to introduce a new dungeon token that you get from story mode dungeons that is universal across all dungeons, these tokens could then be exchanged for the level 80 exotics with the same very common skin you get from the rare gear at dungeon vendors so it would be used for stats only.
I’m sure there are many other solutions to the issue and some of them could be a lot better than what I suggested. In any case I really hope a solution is implemented sooner rather than later so we can get read of the now mandatory gear treadmill and start having fun and grinding for cosmetics only if people want to.

Between rare exotic skins, cultural skins, dungeon skins, etc etc are already a huge incentive for people to work towards cool things on the long term, so please let everyone play on an even playing field at level 80 by letting people get gear with the same stats as other people in a reasonable amount of time.

If you’re reading this topic and have another idea for improving this area of the game please respond with your ideas, and thanks for reading this much, it turned out a bit lengthier than I intended

I completely agree with the OP. They should have gone the sPvP route where all the stat sets are available to you for free with ugly skins and then we get to farm skins thereafter. That way we wont be at a statistical disadvantage and we will be encouraged to farm cool looking armour.

how about they just hand us all the good gear as soon as we hit level 80 so we don’t even have to play the game.

Adzy.8370:

how about they just hand us all the good gear as soon as we hit level 80 so we don’t even have to play the game.

They already hand you all the good gear in sPvP… all you do from that point on is farm skins… people still play sPvP… what is your point exactly?

It took me 2 days to get the materials for my level 80 exotic cloth gear + an exotic 80 staff. Granted, when I first saw the requirements, this was my initial reaction too. I made myself some gold gear and planned on ignoring the exotics.

Then I 100%‘ed all the 70+ maps, and ended up with 2 40 stacks of Ori and a 40 stack of gossamer, and a bunch of silver. I broke golds and lower-priced epics along the way for the ecto (I never had to buy any, I ended up having everything I needed). I had to buy some more gossamer and ori, but not much, because while running around 100%’ing the map I’d built up some stacks of them already. The money I made gathering mats I didn’t need then selling, combined with the mats from selling gear drops, and map completion, gave me what I needed to buy what mats I was missing off the Trade-post.

I was done in two days. I don’t have a secondary exotic and only 2 pieces of exotic accessories mind you, but those can wait until I build up some more money again (down to 2g). And to avoid the question later, I’ve never converted gems to gold, or the other way around for that matter.

Anyway, it’s only ‘40g’ worth of components if you buy 40g worth of components. Otherwise, get out there and get the materials yourself, it saves lots of money and you also contribute to the community this way.

And if you decide you want a condition build, you have to do all that all over again… or an alt… or a healing build… or whatever. The game was initially touted as a game that wasn’t supposed to be about grinding gear. But it is…

No, it’s not. You don’t seem to be quite getting it. That’s not hard to do at all. If you want to have a new set of armor for every circumstance and absolutely require that it’s the best available, you’re going to have to work for it. How is that unfair? If you want to be that versatile, get an exotic set for your main build and stick with gold sets for your situational builds. The gold sets are MORE than functional for gameplay, and are like a single digit % less powerful than exotic versions. It’s not a huge gap.

You’re asking that you just get the best of everything you could ever want in the game, right away, and you think Anet’s the one being unreasonable?

Nate Gray.9241:

Anyway, it’s only ‘40g’ worth of components if you buy 40g worth of components. Otherwise, get out there and get the materials yourself, it saves lots of money and you also contribute to the community this way.

It’s still 40g worth of components if you gather them yourself because you’re consuming materials that you could have sold for 40g on the trading post, meaning you’re losing 40g either way you put it.

Most people aren’t able to earn 20g or 20g worth of materials per day.

Nate Gray.9241:

No, it’s not. You don’t seem to be quite getting it. That’s not hard to do at all. If you want to have a new set of armor for every circumstance and absolutely require that it’s the best available, you’re going to have to work for it. How is that unfair? If you want to be that versatile, get an exotic set for your main build and stick with gold sets for your situational builds. The gold sets are MORE than functional for gameplay, and are like a single digit % less powerful than exotic versions. It’s not a huge gap.

You’re asking that you just get the best of everything you could ever want in the game, right away, and you think Anet’s the one being unreasonable?

Please don’t reply if you don’t read the whole post and don’t have anything to add. All of those concerns you have have been addressed in the OP. Let me add that I got a full set of exotic gear on my main within the first week of launch, but a lot has changed since then. I was in the process of leveling up an alt to level 80 but I stopped after doing the math and realizing how expensive it would be to get gear.

I hate repeating myself but here you go, just for you: This is not about getting the best everything in the game, this is about being on an even playing field at level 80. This is about playing the game the way Colin Johanson envisioned it. This is about playing the game without a gear treadmill and having fun/

Cerise.9045:

I hate repeating myself but here you go, just for you: This is not about getting the best everything in the game, this is about being on an even playing field at level 80. This is about playing the game the way Colin Johanson envisioned it. This is about playing the game without a gear treadmill and having fun/

This… exactly this.

This honestly really only matters in WvW. And not for long, because exotics and yellow items are fairly easy. I didn’t even have to farm, or buy, anything except a few fine mats that I was lacking, because I leveled up my crafting while I was leveling up.

All it takes is a little planning ahead. It’s just like life, if you don’t plan ahead, then don’t be surprised if you have to pay a little extra when you get where you’re going.

Illushia.3721:

This honestly really only matters in WvW. And not for long, because exotics and yellow items are fairly easy. I didn’t even have to farm, or buy, anything except a few fine mats that I was lacking, because I leveled up my crafting while I was leveling up.

All it takes is a little planning ahead. It’s just like life, if you don’t plan ahead, then don’t be surprised if you have to pay a little extra when you get where you’re going.

Easy for some people, not for others.

If I’m just playing for the sake of making money, I make about 5G per day, and this is a lot more than most people. When spending time on the trading post I’ve gotten this up to 10G or even 20G in a day but I don’t consider abusing the trading post to be a fun way to spend my time. My favorite thing to do is WvW and if I spend the day doing that I’m lucky if I end up with 1G at the end of the day.

My main is taken care of, but thinking about what it would take to get my alt on an even playing field made me not want to play that character anymore. That 40g(or 40g materials I gather myself) will take a looong time to get, and during that time I won’t be able to spend money on anything else or it’ll set me back that much.

Well, even if you were going to straight up BUY exotics, they’re only about 2g~ each for armor. Weapons can get pricier, but if you’re willing to settle for a yellow 80 weapon, you’re only losing out on maybe … 50 weapon DPS at most. Which really isn’t much.

And then you only have to keep it for a few days while you farm some gold.

There’s even crafters(I do it on my server) who will make armor and weapons for free(tips are nice!) If you give them the mats for it, so you can get armor and weapons for next to nothing if you’re smart about it.

Illushia.3721:

Well, even if you were going to straight up BUY exotics, they’re only about 2g~ each for armor. Weapons can get pricier, but if you’re willing to settle for a yellow 80 weapon, you’re only losing out on maybe … 50 weapon DPS at most. Which really isn’t much.

And then you only have to keep it for a few days while you farm some gold.

There’s even crafters(I do it on my server) who will make armor and weapons for free(tips are nice!) If you give them the mats for it, so you can get armor and weapons for next to nothing if you’re smart about it.

Usually the exotics themselves cost about the same as the materials to buy them either a bit less or a bit more, but not enough to be significant. Some weapons are sold at a significantly higher price which drives the price up for buying a full set of exotic gear a bunch, but I did my math assuming people would be smart about it and just either gather or buy the mats off the TP then get someone to craft the stuff for them because this is what I did for my character and.

This doesn’t change the value of the gear though, or the effort required to gather all the required materials. I added it all up for a full set of gear and it adds up to this

Glob of Ectoplasm x 55
Orichalcum Ore x 222
Ruby Orb x 25
Powerful Blood x 35
Ancient Wood Log x 30
Gossamer Scrap x 74
Spool of Gossamer Thread x 130

This isn’t what I would get for one of my own characters, but this is what I found to be by far the most popular set of stats.

You would save 9-10 gold getting carrion armor/weapons and Chrysocola jewelry but people really want that DPS gear. And you’d still be down 30 gold.

The Powerful blood and the Ectoplasm are by far the most expensive parts of those, though. The Ancient logs were about 8c each last night, so they’re almost negligible, as well as some of the leather and stuff along the way.

Powerful blood can be replaced by another stat-item(Like ancient bones, for Carrion(vit/cond/power) or vicious claw(power/prec/MF)) which are MUCH MUCH cheaper.

And Ectos can be gotten for free by breaking items down.

It’s expensive, yes. But it doesn’t -have- to be, and it doesn’t have to be a chore, either.

If you’re willing to wait a couple of days, you can be in full exotics in no time. And if you don’t wait, and you go into WvW and get flattened, then tbh, it’s your fault. Going somewhere not being prepared is never the fault of the guy who’s flattening you because your gear is a few levels behind and mostly greens.

Illushia.3721:

The Powerful blood and the Ectoplasm are by far the most expensive parts of those, though. The Ancient logs were about 8c each last night, so they’re almost negligible, as well as some of the leather and stuff along the way.

Powerful blood can be replaced by another stat-item(Like ancient bones, for Carrion(vit/cond/power) or vicious claw(power/prec/MF)) which are MUCH MUCH cheaper.

And Ectos can be gotten for free by breaking items down.

It’s expensive, yes. But it doesn’t -have- to be, and it doesn’t have to be a chore, either.

If you’re willing to wait a couple of days, you can be in full exotics in no time. And if you don’t wait, and you go into WvW and get flattened, then tbh, it’s your fault. Going somewhere not being prepared is never the fault of the guy who’s flattening you because your gear is a few levels behind and mostly greens.

Most people are not making 40g or 40g in materials in “a couple of days” I managed to get it easily because I took advantage of the trading post before it had a chance to settle.

It may have been easy for you and me, but 40g is still a metric ton for the vast majority of the player base.

But you’re still looking at it in “This costs this much always”.

If someone farms their gear, it costs much less, for a few reasons.

1) You’re making money in the process. If you’re out farming, are you reeeeeeeeeeeeally going to pass up that event over there? You’ll make exp, karma, and money.

2) Gear can, and -does-, drop out in the world. I’ve only gotten two exotics(And I couldn’t use them because they were the wrong armor type), but they do drop. That’s money you wouldn’t have made.

3) By farming mats, that armor effectively doesn’t cost you anything. Yes, “You could have sold those on the TP so you’re losing money” but you can’t really lose money you never had in the first place. It’s cost-neutral because that money was never in your pocket. Are those mats worth more to you as money, or as gear? If you’re farming gear, they’re obviously worth more to you as gear than they are as money, so the gear doesn’t cost as much as you make it out to seem.

So, really, that 40g set of gear, even for the most expensive items, is really only going to cost you 10g or so, after taking into account drops, farming, materials, events, and everything else.

10g isn’t so bad at all.

Illushia.3721:

But you’re still looking at it in “This costs this much always”.

If someone farms their gear, it costs much less, for a few reasons.

1) You’re making money in the process. If you’re out farming, are you reeeeeeeeeeeeally going to pass up that event over there? You’ll make exp, karma, and money.

2) Gear can, and -does-, drop out in the world. I’ve only gotten two exotics(And I couldn’t use them because they were the wrong armor type), but they do drop. That’s money you wouldn’t have made.

3) By farming mats, that armor effectively doesn’t cost you anything. Yes, “You could have sold those on the TP so you’re losing money” but you can’t really lose money you never had in the first place. It’s cost-neutral because that money was never in your pocket. Are those mats worth more to you as money, or as gear? If you’re farming gear, they’re obviously worth more to you as gear than they are as money, so the gear doesn’t cost as much as you make it out to seem.

So, really, that 40g set of gear, even for the most expensive items, is really only going to cost you 10g or so, after taking into account drops, farming, materials, events, and everything else.

10g isn’t so bad at all.

You’re missing a very very very crucial point here. Making money and getting crafting materials is both an investment of time. It takes a lot of time getting all of the components together whether you farm them, stumble into them, or buy them.

Let me try to put it differently so it’s easier to understand for you.

Tomorrow, instead of putting stuff in your bank, sell everything you get on the trading post. Sell all the ecto you get from yellows, sell all the orichalcum you mine. Then at the end of the day, look at how much progress you really made.

Bottom line is this is not a “couple of days” of work for anyone playing now starting from scratch.

You don’t have to insult me by saying that I don’t understand something, when I clearly do, just because I don’t agree with you.

Good day sir/ma’am.

Illushia.3721:

You don’t have to insult me by saying that I don’t understand something, when I clearly do, just because I don’t agree with you.

Good day sir/ma’am.

You insinuated that 40 gold in materials is only really 10 gold because you get magical orichalcum and ectoplasm that rains from the sky.
You insinuated that just because you and me get something easily, it must be easy for the 99% of the playerbase that is barely making 1-2 gold per day as well! And yes, that 1-2 gold includes the ecto and orichalcum and T6 mats they get towards their exotics.

This means either you clearly don’t understand the issue at hand here or you’re just trolling to make yourself feel better. Either way you’re not contributing to the thread. I just gave you the benefit of the doubt and assumed you are not trolling.

The OP seem to be a PVPer at his core. He doesnt like the idea of crafting out each piece for each build. I am an explorer first then PVEr then a PVPr. Hell I only know of the gear off of the karma venders. Some of my gear is yellow text is that the gold you speak of? What color is exotic?

I want best in slot gear to be GRAFTED only whether it be for looks or stats. I don’t want a token system like other games have. Ide like to be able to just graft and gather components if thats all i wanna do to make money…

Kosh.6473:

The OP seem to be a PVPer at his core. He doesnt like the idea of crafting out each piece for each build. I am an explorer first then PVEr then a PVPr. Hell I only know of the gear off of the karma venders. Some of my gear is yellow text is that the gold you speak of? What color is exotic?

I want best in slot gear to be GRAFTED only whether it be for looks or stats. I don’t want a token system like other games have. Ide like to be able to just graft and gather components if thats all i wanna do to make money…

I enjoy all aspects of the game, but this isn’t about me. This is about the people who are stuck for weeks, maybe over a month, in a gear treadmill just to get on the same playing field as other 80s.

Exotic gear has an orange color, here’s an example of the armor sets I use for farming and what I use for WvW.

I realized I didn’t even include the price for runes and a sigil in my calculations. But this ranges from 10 silver to 6g depending on what set you want. The full rune set for my MF gear is about 1.5G at current market value, but the set I want for my WvW gear would put me back 6G. And there’s no real way to farm for it, unless you want to spend week farming elementals hoping for a lucky lodestone drop, then doing it 5 more times for the other 5. That’s how rare they are.

you see how people will find the smallest things to QQ about…this is a TINY fraction of people worried about this because 90% of us playing LIKE THE GRIND to get the gear we worked hard to get…and lets face it, you can buy the exotics from the trade post for as much as it would cost YOU to make it or less..so stop QQ’ing and go farm thin vials of blood \ gold ore and make 10g every 1-2 hours

90% of us playing LIKE THE GRIND

Do you have any evidence for this claim ?

The worst part about the gear treadmill is that I’m hearing that Legendary weapons have higher stats than exotics. And that to make one, you need items that can only be acquired through world completion. You get two of these items for world completion. Which means each character can make at most two legendary weapons, to make more another character needs to go without.
The only classes that could fill all their weapon slots with legendary weapons are staff eles and rifle engineers.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

90% of us playing LIKE THE GRIND

Do you have any evidence for this claim ?

The worst part about the gear treadmill is that I’m hearing that Legendary weapons have higher stats than exotics. And that to make one, you need items that can only be acquired through world completion. You get two of these items for world completion. Which means each character can make at most two legendary weapons, to make more another character needs to go without.
The only classes that could fill all their weapon slots with legendary weapons are staff eles and rifle engineers.

Really off topic but let me clarify that.
Legendaries are 100% cosmetic, they have the same stats as exotics.
The 2 world completion gifts are ACCOUNT bound. So if you are insane enough to try to craft more than 2 legendaries you can get another set of gifts from each alt you have. Also ArenaNet has stated that the final legendary you make is bind on equip, so whoever creates a legendary is free to send it to someone else or try to sell it.

As for what Reaper said, I don’t know anyone who said the reason they want to play GW2 is because they love grinding. In fact it’s the opposite, everyone I know who plays the game says one of the reasons they are playing GW2 and not WoW is because ArenaNet said that grinding would be optional and for cosmetics only, and they are going to be very disappointed when they see how much grinding is required to get equal stat gear.

I love how people in here are saying they like the grind when ArenaNet said this wouldn’t be a game about grind… also… some of you are saying ONLY 2 gold. 2 gold is really hard to come by for me. I’m not sure how you guys are making 10-20 gold per day like you say.

Also, the crafted gear I want is almost 4 gold a piece.

Cerise.9045:

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

90% of us playing LIKE THE GRIND

Do you have any evidence for this claim ?

The worst part about the gear treadmill is that I’m hearing that Legendary weapons have higher stats than exotics. And that to make one, you need items that can only be acquired through world completion. You get two of these items for world completion. Which means each character can make at most two legendary weapons, to make more another character needs to go without.
The only classes that could fill all their weapon slots with legendary weapons are staff eles and rifle engineers.

Really off topic but let me clarify that.
Legendaries are 100% cosmetic, they have the same stats as exotics.

I used to think that. Then I saw the stats listed here.

Lets take tridens as an example:
Kraitkin (legendary trident)
Weapon strength: 919 – 1015
+ 91 power
+ 65 toughness
+ 65 vitality

Exotic tridents: Strength: 904-1000
+ 90 primary stat
+ 64 on the other two (excluding crit damage)

So the Dark Asuran Trident is:
Weapon strength: 904-1000
+ 90 power
+ 64 Toughness
+ 64 Vitality

So they are more powerful.

The 2 world completion gifts are ACCOUNT bound. So if you are insane enough to try to craft more than 2 legendaries you can get another set of gifts from each alt you have. Also ArenaNet has stated that the final legendary you make is bind on equip, so whoever creates a legendary is free to send it to someone else or try to sell it.

It’s still a case that if you want a third legendary weapon, another character that someone put a lot of time into must lose out. Maybe your alt, maybe someone else’s character.

Though them being more powerful is only true if your build uses Power/Toughness/Vitality. If you don’t, then you’re stuck with exotics because that’s the only stat combination they come with. Which just makes things worse for condition builds, which already have a problems operating in a group.

There is only as much gear treadmill as you want it have.

Right now, my sights are on Rare stuff [yellow] because they are much easier to get and i only need 2 kinds… a MF set and a general usage set with the stats i find useful.

After that, i’m set.

If i want that minuscule benefit of going for exotic, then it’ll just be another goal. not like i HAVE to reach the pinnacle of min-max in a game that is more about team-play and (supposed~) gear-balanced sPvP… you know… unlike some other MMOs.

I normally just lurk, but the way you’re calling out this issue is pretty undeserved given that you’re talking about a blip of difference while assuming all players are just here to min-max.

can we replace prefixes with insignias?

insignias are great in guild wars 1

why there are no insignias in guild wars 2?

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

I used to think that. Then I saw the stats listed here.

Lets take tridens as an example:
Kraitkin (legendary trident)
Weapon strength: 919 – 1015
+ 91 power
+ 65 toughness
+ 65 vitality

Exotic tridents: Strength: 904-1000
+ 90 primary stat
+ 64 on the other two (excluding crit damage)

So the Dark Asuran Trident is:
Weapon strength: 904-1000
+ 90 power
+ 64 Toughness
+ 64 Vitality

So they are more powerful.

The 2 world completion gifts are ACCOUNT bound. So if you are insane enough to try to craft more than 2 legendaries you can get another set of gifts from each alt you have. Also ArenaNet has stated that the final legendary you make is bind on equip, so whoever creates a legendary is free to send it to someone else or try to sell it.

It’s still a case that if you want a third legendary weapon, another character that someone put a lot of time into must lose out. Maybe your alt, maybe someone else’s character.

Though them being more powerful is only true if your build uses Power/Toughness/Vitality. If you don’t, then you’re stuck with exotics because that’s the only stat combination they come with. Which just makes things worse for condition builds, which already have a problems operating in a group.

The stats on gw2db or wherever you got those stats from are really inaccurate.
http://i.imgur.com/watmM.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eajed.jpg

gabo.6721:

There is only as much gear treadmill as you want it have.

Right now, my sights are on Rare stuff [yellow] because they are much easier to get and i only need 2 kinds… a MF set and a general usage set with the stats i find useful.

After that, i’m set.

If i want that minuscule benefit of going for exotic, then it’ll just be another goal. not like i HAVE to reach the pinnacle of min-max in a game that is more about team-play and (supposed~) gear-balanced sPvP… you know… unlike some other MMOs.

I normally just lurk, but the way you’re calling out this issue is pretty undeserved given that you’re talking about a blip of difference while assuming all players are just here to min-max.

I wouldn’t call being able to 4v1 people miniscule. Without my exotic set advantage this wouldn’t be possible.

inb4 give us legendaries for free.
Getting a full set of rares is cheap, and the stat difference compared to exotics isn’t that big.
This game doesn’t have much to do after 80 anyway, don’t suggest Anet to remove some more.

Man I have really tried to be nice on these forums but there are just so many wow babies on here
There is no treadmill, there is no 40g in materials

And you know what else if everyone wants to be in the same gear everyone has to do the same thing
I made my carrion set through my tailor. I made my jewelry through my jeweler with very minimum costs, because when I’m playing the game I gathered and crafted
All toll I bought gossamer thread
Any and everyone can craft jewelry and armor for practically no cost

And what is the huge increase in grinding for exotics?

Sorry but you just don’t understand the game and how to go about acquiring materials, spend some time and do some reading.
I’m sorry but I cannto possibly disagree with you more nor can I have any kind of sympathy for anyone who wants to make something easier that is already so simple.
My 9 year old nephew is in all exotic on mats he gave to me to make his gear, just as a gauge…

mangarrage.1062:

Man I have really tried to be nice on these forums but there are just so many wow babies on here
There is no treadmill, there is no 40g in materials

And you know what else if everyone wants to be in the same gear everyone has to do the same thing
I made my carrion set through my tailor. I made my jewelry through my jeweler with very minimum costs, because when I’m playing the game I gathered and crafted
All toll I bought gossamer thread
Any and everyone can craft jewelry and armor for practically no cost

And what is the huge increase in grinding for exotics?

Sorry but you just don’t understand the game and how to go about acquiring materials, spend some time and do some reading.
I’m sorry but I cannto possibly disagree with you more nor can I have any kind of sympathy for anyone who wants to make something easier that is already so simple.
My 9 year old nephew is in all exotic on mats he gave to me to make his gear, just as a gauge…

If it’s really that easy can you spare me the following mats?
Glob of Ectoplasm x 55
Orichalcum Ore x 222
Ruby Orb x 25
Powerful Blood x 35
Ancient Wood Log x 30
Gossamer Scrap x 74

Especially the ecto, I decided to play PvE for 4-5 hours yesterday and got 3 yellow drops, which is a lot more than usual because I was mostly doing explorable dungeons, but I only got 1 ecto out of it.

There is no need to grind gear while levelling. While levelling at least up until 60 I bought player made and other masterwork gear off the TP every 10 levels. Some times vendors had upgrades either from karma or coin. Weapons I bought whenever I felt my damage was falling behind, which is usually more often than every 10 levels, but not that frequent. I don’t see any “grind for gear” issue.

Now for level 80 “vanity” gear, thats part of the PvE end game. Remove that and there will be more complaints about lack of PvE end game in a PvP game.

GOSU.9574:

Now for level 80 “vanity” gear, thats part of the PvE end game. Remove that and there will be more complaints about lack of PvE end game in a PvP game.

There is no one in the thread asking to remove the “vanity” gear grind. We are asking for for a base set (doesn’t matter if it’s ugly) that will offer all the different exotic gear sets and put us on par. So we don’t have to GRIND to remain competitive.

We want a grind for looks, not a grind for stats.

Jasher.6580:

So we don’t have to GRIND to remain competitive.

Competitive? rofl.
it doesn’t matter in PvE as everyone works together.
In WvW tiny stat differences between rares and exotics don’t matter, bigger zerg wins most of the time.
All this time you’ve spent here whining you could’ve farmed those mats.
Oh, and just buy this KITTEN ectoplasm, it’s like 20s or something.

Cerise.9045:

The stats on gw2db or wherever you got those stats from are really inaccurate.
http://i.imgur.com/watmM.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eajed.jpg

Then all my complaints about legendary weapons are wrong. I’m happy to have that cleared up.

Shifted.6912:

inb4 give us legendaries for free.

The most I would be doing was to ask ANET to reduce the stats on legendary weapons down to the same as exotics. Maybe remove the stats from them completely, just like HoM gear.

But I was wrong on that.

Jasher.6580:

GOSU.9574:

Now for level 80 “vanity” gear, thats part of the PvE end game. Remove that and there will be more complaints about lack of PvE end game in a PvP game.

There is no one in the thread asking to remove the “vanity” gear grind. We are asking for for a base set (doesn’t matter if it’s ugly) that will offer all the different exotic gear sets and put us on par. So we don’t have to GRIND to remain competitive.

We want a grind for looks, not a grind for stats.

Think of the ugliest skin in the game. Ugly it up a bit more. Then beat it with the ugly stick. As long as it’s affordable, and can come with any stat combination found on any exotic, it would satisfy our request.

If we play for any length of time, we will acquire better looking gear.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

Think of the ugliest skin in the game. Ugly it up a bit more. Then beat it with the ugly stick. As long as it’s affordable, and can come with any stat combination found on any exotic, it would satisfy our request.

Exactly, this is what we’ve been saying all this time.

Again, this isn’t about vanity gear. I loved working towards obsidian armor and I love all the options for vanity gear in GW2 (dungeons, WvW exotics, god temple exotics, Cultural armor/weapons, and all the unique skins from the mystic forge, just to give some examples).

This isn’t about the 1%, which I am myself a part of, who managed to scrounge up enough money to buy 1 or 2 full sets of exotic gear quickly after the game was released by making money off the trading post, or getting drops before all the nerfs to stop botters, or whatever other methods people used.

This is about all the people who are barely making 1-2 gold, or even less than that if they are keeping all the materials they gather because they want to use those materials to get their exotic gear.

This is about the people who have spent the entire time since hitting level 80 grinding and not having fun every day so they can get enough materials or money for their gear in weeks, maybe over a month, just so they can be on an even playing field with everyone else.

The sooner people stop having to go through the pointless gear treadmill to get their exotic gear, the sooner these people can start playing the game to have fun.

Yes, settling for green/yellow gear is a completely valid option and will let you enjoy the whole game without any roadblocks in place that prevent you from enjoying those aspects of the game. But is it balanced?

Here’s what I do in my rare gear, which I saved because the skin I use for it got extremely expensive in a recent patch. I’m still using an exotic sword because the rare sword I used when I hit 80 was ugly and I tossed it when I got an exotic sword.
http://i.imgur.com/8twIM.jpg

Now again in exotic gear, against the same mob, using the same attack, under the same conditions.
http://i.imgur.com/K8Jd0.jpg

And this is why I upgraded to exotic gear.

Sorry I deleted the post, wanted to check if the berserk buff made mobs take more damage but it doesn’t.

I don’t mind a reasonable grind for cosmetic items. But as it stands it’ll be weeks before I can get my exotics set. I earn about 1 gold a day. The set I want costs around 30 gold. Assuming no other costs come up (which they will) it’ll be over a month before I can compete with other players in wvw.

Heck, I can’t even use my real world money to get a decent amount of gear due to the wacky conversion rate.

Biscuithammer.8615:

The set I want costs around 30 gold.

You said it yourself.
The set you want.
Mats for crafted exotics are less than half of that. If you aren’t able to get 10-15 gold as a level 80, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing.
Free tip: start using the trading post, you can get rich on that thing.

Shifted.6912:

Biscuithammer.8615:

The set I want costs around 30 gold.

You said it yourself.
The set you want.
Mats for crafted exotics are less than half of that. If you aren’t able to get 10-15 gold as a level 80, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing.
Free tip: start using the trading post, you can get rich on that thing.

Where’s the trading post data to back this up?

In my “items I bought” log.

But just to please your QQing:

30 globs of ecto – 5 for each one of 6 parts – ~6g (~20s/piece)
130 gossamer thread – 6.40s each ~83s
30 powerful blood – ~16s each – ~4g
72 gossamer scraps – 4s each – ~2.8g
40 hardened leather scraps – 40c each -16s

TOTAL = ~14g.

This gives you a full berserker medium set

did the math just now, based on current TP prices, while writing this.
Problem?

Shifted.6912:

In my “items I bought” log.

But just to please your QQing:

30 globs of ecto – 5 for each one of 6 parts – ~6g (~20s/piece)
130 gossamer thread – 6.40s each ~83s
30 powerful blood – ~16s each – ~4g
72 gossamer scraps – 4s each – ~2.8g
40 hardened leather scraps – 40c each -16s

TOTAL = ~14g.

This gives you a full berserker medium set

did the math just now, based on current TP prices, while writing this.
Problem?

You’re missing jewelry and weapons. And you rounded down several gold.

I’m confused with all these people saying… “Oh, only 14g”… It’s HARD for me to get gold in this game. I already have 4 exotics and it felt like a serious grind for me to scrounge up the gold for them.

Cerise.9045:

Shifted.6912:

In my “items I bought” log.

But just to please your QQing:

30 globs of ecto – 5 for each one of 6 parts – ~6g (~20s/piece)
130 gossamer thread – 6.40s each ~83s
30 powerful blood – ~16s each – ~4g
72 gossamer scraps – 4s each – ~2.8g
40 hardened leather scraps – 40c each -16s

TOTAL = ~14g.

This gives you a full berserker medium set

did the math just now, based on current TP prices, while writing this.
Problem?

You’re missing jewelry and weapons. And you rounded down several gold.

He also missed out the mats for superior sigils and runes.

Aaaaand you’re missing the karma gear from Orr, dungeon gear, wvw gear, which are all completely viable in certain situations, and if not, are always good placeholders, and also some simple facts on top of it:
*You don’t need to have the best gear to HAVE FUN in this game, as you’re implying in your post above. This isn’t WoW.
*WvW, which you’re constantly crying about here, isn’t balanced, never will be, and it’s not even because of small, meaningless differences between rare and exotic gear of a SINGLE PERSON. WvW games are won by the rich with their siege weapons aided by the zerg that rolls through everything no matter their gear.
*The last, most important thing. ArenaNet won’t do it. I could bet everything on it. There’s like, what, three of you here wanting this in game against hundreds of thousands, or even millions of players who simply don’t care (not to mention they already got their gear because they’ve spent their free time playing the game instead of writing sad posts on the forums).

I don’t even know why I let myself pull into this meaningless thread first. As my farewell words, a tip for you:
If you want balance, play sPvP.
If you want exotics, play the game instead of sitting here. Ignore the math, just enjoy the experience and you’ll notice how fast you’ll be able to afford your dream gear.

Guys, I really appreciate your input, but please don’t post things like this when you haven’t even read the thread.

The whole post above is basically saying “you’re just upset because you don’t have the best gear in the game” Look at this post
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Removing-the-gear-treadmill-for-even-stat-items/first#post198900

40g, 28g, whatever —

you have a choice. This is a cash-shop game. If you want it, you can buy it. Or you can work it out grind style, or patiently. you have a choice

This thread makes me laugh.

Why not make an MMO where everyone is lv.1 and have everything unlocked?

You know you got to level 80 by playing this game right? don’t you think that’s too time consuming as well? it’s easier to get full exotic than to level 1-80 lmao

The sooner people stop having to go through the pointless gear treadmill to get their exotic gear, the sooner these people can start playing the game to have fun.

I don’t even know where to begin with that statement, what is fun for you? it sounds to me like all you want to do is get best gear (yeah just say it, don’t say “even playing field”)

What do you plan on doing with your gear? it certainly sounds to me like you don’t want to do PvE exploration cause you know, that would be “an enormous grind”. How about WvW? setting up siege? NAH MAN that is a grind getting badges and gold

Here are list of games that you will enjoy:

• Bejeweled
• Plants vs. Zombies
• Team Fortress 2 (Oh not this one, there is item unlock! zomg grind!)
• Tetris
• Peggle
• Farmville
• Bejeweled 2
• http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Casual/
• Scrabble
• Sudoku
• Angry Birds
• Bejeweled 3
• Monopoly (I have to warn you, this may be a grind for you)

Making this reply was an enormous grind and too time consuming for me, I’m going to go play on Etch-A-Sketch now.