Guild Wars 2

Hello all, namely devs,
we crafters just need the 400ish crafting mats. Getting to it is boring. Please try to think about some way how to improve it.
1. keep the nodes on the same locations. Still boring to harvest the stuff, but at least less annoying and time consuming. I want to do something else than “reexplore” Cursed Shore running through all the boring mobs who try to gnaw at my heels
2. mark the nodes somehow on map so they look differently than mithril and cypres saplings
3. consider making some tough high level mining area guarded by vets or even champs where we can harvest the top stuff (only)
Thanks!

Google → gw2nodes → enjoy.

Yeah, gw2nodes.com

It helps a lot. I usually guest to a higher populated server to do my ori/ancient wood runs because no one else likes to update the maps for FC.

fey.5438:

Google -> gw2nodes -> enjoy.

Still a grind. When T7 mats became the higher level T6 mats availability should have been increased. I said in another post that I felt like gouging my eyes out after farming to 500 artificer and I’ve still got weaponsmith and huntsman to go.

morrolan.9608:

fey.5438:

Google -> gw2nodes -> enjoy.

Still a grind. When T7 mats became the higher level T6 mats availability should have been increased. I said in another post that I felt like gouging my eyes out after farming to 500 artificer and I’ve still got weaponsmith and huntsman to go.

It is a grind. Part of the reason they had back to back farming content for 4 total weeks was to infuse the economy with more gold and more mats to offset what they knew would be a drain of both in a hurry.

no need to change anything..

it is good as it is now

and random location after reset will make it just a little hassle for botter

I think if they added a few more nodes of the T6 materials to the current maps they can be harvested in, that would reduce the grind length a bit.

morrolan.9608:

fey.5438:

Google -> gw2nodes -> enjoy.

Still a grind. When T7 mats became the higher level T6 mats availability should have been increased. I said in another post that I felt like gouging my eyes out after farming to 500 artificer and I’ve still got weaponsmith and huntsman to go.

Everything in games are a grind. Otherwise what’s the point of playing? Do you want to log-in one day and have all your ori’s available in your inventory?

Or do you actually want to go out and work for your items?

How about, I log in, click ‘collect ore’ button, wait about 30 seconds, ore is deposited into inventory, and the ‘collect ore’ button now goes on a 24 hour cool-down like glob refinement.

Only kidding, though honestly I find myself only having time to harvest ori/ancient wood daily and not do anything else. It takes me about 20-30 minutes per toon (depending on ore/wood locations) to do all four maps and then I do that on 3 toons. About an hour and a half later and that is all I have had time to do. I do occasionally get to hit up the karka queen or a temple here and there if I am lucky enough to bump into those on the way. But sadly for me, no time to do anything else.

Still need to get back to grinding dungeons for the emphyreal fragments.

If you think t6 wood is a grind then you probably haven’t bothered trying to get the t2 wood yet.

Sitting in collections right now …
19 soft wood logs
17 soft wood planks

238 ancient logs
51 ancient planks

Sure there were some slightly tight situations when I was trying to get to 500 but once that is done just salvaging has been keeping up. I haven’t even bothered to really go get them anymore; I used to go get the ones in CS/ML/FS when I did the Melandru/Dwayna/Claw events. If they were nearby (with in map range of the events) then I’ll still get them, maybe.

So the point is that they aren’t needed in the long term. Adding more now will just increase the chance of needing to fix a situation of having too many around in the future.

I guess if someone was worried about job security this might be something to do. :P

Vol.5241:

Everything in games are a grind. Otherwise what’s the point of playing? Do you want to log-in one day and have all your ori’s available in your inventory?

Or do you actually want to go out and work for your items?

Do you actually want to try and frame an argument or do just want to make up strawmen?

some people are just lazy and want to be spoonfed…..

If its a “grind” to you, you can either accept the rewards are not for you or you can pay a premium to the people who feel like putting in the time AND want to sell them.

Or you can put in the effort.

But plenty of people ARE getting to the rewards they want so don’t expect the system to bend for you.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

How about, I log in, click ‘collect ore’ button, wait about 30 seconds, ore is deposited into inventory, and the ‘collect ore’ button now goes on a 24 hour cool-down like glob refinement.

Funny, I have that button. It’s called “log in my alt parked at the end of the pirate jump puzzle in LA.”

Vol.5241:

morrolan.9608:

fey.5438:

Google -> gw2nodes -> enjoy.

Still a grind. When T7 mats became the higher level T6 mats availability should have been increased. I said in another post that I felt like gouging my eyes out after farming to 500 artificer and I’ve still got weaponsmith and huntsman to go.

Everything in games are a grind. Otherwise what’s the point of playing? Do you want to log-in one day and have all your ori’s available in your inventory?

Or do you actually want to go out and work for your items?

Emphasis Mine

Most of us want to play this ‘game,’ not have it be a second/third job. Strawmen of “It’s an MMO, get used to it” or “It’s supposed to be a grind” needn’t apply. GW2 was supposed to be the paradigm shifting game that moved the MMOG leaps and bounds away from its bad past. While ArenaNet have done a lot right, the grind is unfortunately still with us, and exacerbated each time ‘new content’ asks more grind from the players.

While grind will get people logging in, it’s only a matter or time before they log out—often permanently.

I get a fairly decent amount of ori/wood from salvaging blues and greens for luck. More than I ever obtained from my “farming” runs.

Also consider that farming the ori/wood may not be as time efficient as farming something else and selling it on the TP in order to buy the ori/wood directly from the TP.

If you go that route make sure you don’t blindly use the immediate buy/sell features of the TP — I see so many players in my own guild use the TP without a good understanding of how it works. I blame that on the user interface, but honestly it may just be a tax for the mathematically challenged.

You only have so much time to play and you have to decide how you want to play. You have to make trade-offs.

The devs know the ways to control the player economy and one of those ways is to limit the availability of resources in order to maintain their value.

These two factors create this situation. For me, there is so much possibility in this game that I don’t mind a bit of a grind, because the varieties of “grind” are not boring to me:

• Do meta/boss events for Dragonite Ore and rares
• Open world chests for Empyrean Fragments
• Run dungeons/fractals for gold and Dragonite/Fragments
• Gather high-level materials in low quantities to use or sell for a decent price
• Gather low-level materials in high quantities to use or sell for a less decent price
• Mess around with transmuting lower-level mats into higher-level mats via the Mystic Toilet and profit.
• Farm champs for loot boxes

Fext.3614:

Hello all, namely devs,
we crafters just need the 400ish crafting mats. Getting to it is boring. Please try to think about some way how to improve it.
1. keep the nodes on the same locations. Still boring to harvest the stuff, but at least less annoying and time consuming. I want to do something else than “reexplore” Cursed Shore running through all the boring mobs who try to gnaw at my heels
2. mark the nodes somehow on map so they look differently than mithril and cypres saplings
3. consider making some tough high level mining area guarded by vets or even champs where we can harvest the top stuff (only)
Thanks!

So basically you want to make Orichalcum and Ancient wood the most common material in the game?

Why would you do that? Because making money by farming those nodes is “troublesome”? Because making them easier to farm would make them a common material, thus their price would crash. Because you need them in your crafting? Well you can buy them on the TP or get them from salvaging.

Vol.5241:

Everything in games are a grind. Otherwise what’s the point of playing?

For fun. But it seems some people forgot that was supposed to be a main point of the entertainment industry.

Also, instead of more t6 nodes (well, that would be nice), I’d rather see t2/3/4 nodes in the rich (wood) and cluster (both wood and ore) variety. Especially harvesting low tier wood is a pain currently.

KyreneZA.8617:

Vol.5241:

morrolan.9608:

fey.5438:

Google -> gw2nodes -> enjoy.

Still a grind. When T7 mats became the higher level T6 mats availability should have been increased. I said in another post that I felt like gouging my eyes out after farming to 500 artificer and I’ve still got weaponsmith and huntsman to go.

Everything in games are a grind. Otherwise what’s the point of playing? Do you want to log-in one day and have all your ori’s available in your inventory?

Or do you actually want to go out and work for your items?

Emphasis Mine

Most of us want to play this ‘game,’ not have it be a second/third job. Strawmen of “It’s an MMO, get used to it” or “It’s supposed to be a grind” needn’t apply. GW2 was supposed to be the paradigm shifting game that moved the MMOG leaps and bounds away from its bad past. While ArenaNet have done a lot right, the grind is unfortunately still with us, and exacerbated each time ‘new content’ asks more grind from the players.

While grind will get people logging in, it’s only a matter or time before they log out—often permanently.

I’m very interested to hear your definition of grind and how to eliminate it.

Because grinding in MMO’s will always be there. There just isn’t enough resources to create a grindless MMO. It’s impossible.

And don’t take Anet’s word for it by saying this game has no grind. It’s just a buzz phrase.

Khisanth.2948:

If you think t6 wood is a grind then you probably haven’t bothered trying to get the t2 wood yet.

Sitting in collections right now …
19 soft wood logs
17 soft wood planks

238 ancient logs
51 ancient planks

Sure there were some slightly tight situations when I was trying to get to 500 but once that is done just salvaging has been keeping up. I haven’t even bothered to really go get them anymore; I used to go get the ones in CS/ML/FS when I did the Melandru/Dwayna/Claw events. If they were nearby (with in map range of the events) then I’ll still get them, maybe.

So the point is that they aren’t needed in the long term. Adding more now will just increase the chance of needing to fix a situation of having too many around in the future.

I guess if someone was worried about job security this might be something to do. :P

The reason you have more ancient wood than soft wood is your playing style. Because you get most of your wood from salvaging blues/greens and those drops are mostly lvl 80s for you. If you would go out and harvest soft wood in low level areas, you would yield way more per hour than going out and harvest ancient wood.
You also might be surprised, if you put in buy orders for weapons from the lvl range that gives you soft wood (and iron ore) back when you salvage it, that you can actually make a profit because the salvaged mats are more expensive than the buy orders of the weapons.
And you get free essences of luck along the way.

If you only gather for materials, you’re doing it wrong. To maximize the material gain, salvage everything over lv75.

“2. mark the nodes somehow on map so they look differently than mithril and cypres saplings”

Hover the cursor over the node icons on the minimap to see what it is. Shouldn’t be that hard.

Vol.5241:

I’m very interested to hear your definition of grind and how to eliminate it.

“Grind” verb:- doing the same thing repetitively, with little to no real progress towards one’s goal.

I’ll use a conservative example: crafting a single exotic longbow (the fugly “Berserker’s Pearl Stinger”) vs. a single ascended longbow (of the fugly ‘demon-crab-tick’ “Zojja” variety).

The first requires 30 ore (10 nodes), 42 logs (14 nodes), 4 leather sections, 5 ecto (so between 2-5 world bosses depending on RNG in drops and salvaging) and 5 blood (about 1-2 hours worth of skelk/drake culling or riding the champ train in Frostgorge). All in all I’d estimate about 4 hours of total game time (depending on your luck finding/salvaging the leather), of which probably 1 hour (the bosses) is “fun.”

The second requires 720 ore (240 nodes), 2270 logs (~750 nodes), 600 leather sections, 18 ecto and 15 dust (so between 10-25 world bosses), 5 blood, 10 dark matter (5-6 crafted exotics salvaged with BLSK), 500 dragonite ore (17 temples), 500 bloodstone dust (trivial; probably during the temples), 500 empyrean fragments (unsure; I use world chests and JPs, but that’s sub optimal). All in all (ignoring time-gating) at least 72 hours of total game time, of which probably 4 hours (one round of bosses and temples) is “fun.”

I think you are intelligent enough to draw your own conclusion, bearing in mind my previous point about “grind” escalation.

The same old harder bosses and longer grinds are just getting boring, need new areas and level 80(+) content soon.

KyreneZA.8617:

Vol.5241:

I’m very interested to hear your definition of grind and how to eliminate it.

“Grind” verb:- doing the same thing repetitively, with little to no real progress towards one’s goal.

I’ll use a conservative example: crafting a single exotic longbow (the fugly “Berserker’s Pearl Stinger”) vs. a single ascended longbow (of the fugly ‘demon-crab-tick’ “Zojja” variety).

The first requires 30 ore (10 nodes), 42 logs (14 nodes), 4 leather sections, 5 ecto (so between 2-5 world bosses depending on RNG in drops and salvaging) and 5 blood (about 1-2 hours worth of skelk/drake culling or riding the champ train in Frostgorge). All in all I’d estimate about 4 hours of total game time (depending on your luck finding/salvaging the leather), of which probably 1 hour (the bosses) is “fun.”

The second requires 720 ore (240 nodes), 2270 logs (~750 nodes), 600 leather sections, 18 ecto and 15 dust (so between 10-25 world bosses), 5 blood, 10 dark matter (5-6 crafted exotics salvaged with BLSK), 500 dragonite ore (17 temples), 500 bloodstone dust (trivial; probably during the temples), 500 empyrean fragments (unsure; I use world chests and JPs, but that’s sub optimal). All in all (ignoring time-gating) at least 72 hours of total game time, of which probably 4 hours (one round of bosses and temples) is “fun.”

I think you are intelligent enough to draw your own conclusion, bearing in mind my previous point about “grind” escalation.

So what I’m gathering is you want end-game rewards to be just as easy to acquire as the 2nd best tiered item?

You want everything to be easy enough to acquire in short time?

you know, farming it is the same as buying it

you loose money that you would have earned by selling those mats

imo it’s easier to grind gold then buy mats

Shpongle.6025:

imo it’s easier to grind gold then buy mats

And that is why mat prices rise .

(goes back to whistling while harvesting)

fey.5438:

Google -> gw2nodes -> enjoy.

What is there to enjoy?

Running around whacking rocks and chopping trees is fun? Since when?

Its relaxing. I actually enjoy harvesting. And I don’t mind selling the results to people willing to pay enough.

Vol.5241:

So what I’m gathering is you want end-game rewards to be just as easy to acquire as the 2nd best tiered item?

You want everything to be easy enough to acquire in short time?

Well anet did say BiS items would be easy to obtain and any grind would be for cosmetics.

Do you have a quote that Anet said this because I would doubt highly for such a thing.

One thing that can be said for this game is that if you want to talk about grind, it’s a hell of alot less grindy than other games I have played. Only a fool thinks there will be NO grind.

Obtena.7952:

Do you have a quote that Anet said this because I would doubt highly for such a thing.

It was said prior to launch, its been quoted in a multitude of threads about the manifesto and whatnot.

Vol.5241:

KyreneZA.8617:

Vol.5241:

I’m very interested to hear your definition of grind and how to eliminate it.

“Grind” verb:- doing the same thing repetitively, with little to no real progress towards one’s goal.

I’ll use a conservative example: crafting a single exotic longbow (the fugly “Berserker’s Pearl Stinger”) vs. a single ascended longbow (of the fugly ‘demon-crab-tick’ “Zojja” variety).

The first requires 30 ore (10 nodes), 42 logs (14 nodes), 4 leather sections, 5 ecto (so between 2-5 world bosses depending on RNG in drops and salvaging) and 5 blood (about 1-2 hours worth of skelk/drake culling or riding the champ train in Frostgorge). All in all I’d estimate about 4 hours of total game time (depending on your luck finding/salvaging the leather), of which probably 1 hour (the bosses) is “fun.”

The second requires 720 ore (240 nodes), 2270 logs (~750 nodes), 600 leather sections, 18 ecto and 15 dust (so between 10-25 world bosses), 5 blood, 10 dark matter (5-6 crafted exotics salvaged with BLSK), 500 dragonite ore (17 temples), 500 bloodstone dust (trivial; probably during the temples), 500 empyrean fragments (unsure; I use world chests and JPs, but that’s sub optimal). All in all (ignoring time-gating) at least 72 hours of total game time, of which probably 4 hours (one round of bosses and temples) is “fun.”

I think you are intelligent enough to draw your own conclusion, bearing in mind my previous point about “grind” escalation.

So what I’m gathering is you want end-game rewards to be just as easy to acquire as the 2nd best tiered item?

You want everything to be easy enough to acquire in short time?

/facepalm

Okay, I’m done here. If I were to ever reply to you again, I would be infracted. Have a blissful life, Vol!

Obtena.7952:

Do you have a quote that Anet said this because I would doubt highly for such a thing.

The most quoted example is http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-27-guild-wars-2-preview.

“Colin Johanson: Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base.”

Calae.1738:

fey.5438:

Google -> gw2nodes -> enjoy.

What is there to enjoy?

Running around whacking rocks and chopping trees is fun? Since when?

Then earn your gold some other way and buy the materials. Some people do find gathering fun. Part of the “game” aspect of this is that you have series of requirements which must be met in order to achieve a desirable goal, such as having a particular weapon. Deciding how to meet those requirements to reach your goal and going about it is simply playing the game.

daimonos.9831:

Obtena.7952:

Do you have a quote that Anet said this because I would doubt highly for such a thing.

The most quoted example is http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-27-guild-wars-2-preview.

“Colin Johanson: Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base.”

Wow … again, Statistical loot is not BiS; it’s just some vague nonsense really. This statement doesn’t differentiate GW2 as some revolutionary MMO where BiS gear falls in your lap. If anything, it’s a statement that says “People will be competitive at level 80”. You can be competitive with exotic gear.

People are REALLY digging deeply if they think this meant there wouldn’t be grinding in this game for BiS gear. In fact, you could easily see the progression of mats needed to create gear and that has been ingame since day 1. People should really stop deluding themselves.

Obtena.7952:

Statistical loot is not BiS; it’s just some vague nonsense really.

Some players have interpreted “the best statistical loot” as meaning “loot with the best statistics”.

Similarly, http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/guild-wars-2-interview-monetization/ . Mike O’Brien: “Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.” Some players interpreted that to mean that GW2 did not feature “grinding to get the best gear.”

On their own website: https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success/ " Colin Johanson wrote, “We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.”. Some players have interpreteed being “just as poweful” as meaning, “just as powerful, and not less so by having worse gear stats.”

Some are able to read these statements and shrug them off – the basic argument there is, “players should not be so stupid as to believe marketing noises made by ArenaNet spokespeople.”

Sad but true.

I’m just realistic … I’ve played enough MMO’s to know better. Game direction changes, people get new ideas on how to do things. I knew the second that I had to craft up from rare to exotic gear that all this talk I was hearing about ‘no grinding’ was comical. That was reinforced by the fact there was something called a ‘legendary weapon’ that at the time felt insurmountable to get as well. That was a year ago. How could there NOT be a grind. Fact is that this is a very forgiving grind in this game. You can actually get stuff you need just doing a variety of stuff. It’s not the same thing hundreds of times. People look past that because they feel entitled.

People need to think and have a more realistic approach to how they use what someone said over a year ago. The best part about threads like this is that no one has an expectation for what they want fixed. It’s already easy to get wood and ore. I mean, do you just want it to appear in your inventory? Are you willing to do something for them at all or ….?

I’ve made one ascended weapon so far, have the mats for another, and am about a third of the way through the dragonite and empyreal for a third. I’ve done a lot more gathering runs, world bosses and temples then I’d have otherwise chosen to. If I didn’t feel the need to gear up for WvW I’d not be bothering. Ascended armour’s coming in a month or two so it’s not getting better any time soon.

> no one has an expectation for what they want fixed

Reduce all ascended gear to exotic stats in WvW. For me, that would solve the ‘ascended problem’ altogether.

daimonos.9831:

Reduce all ascended gear to exotic stats in WvW. For me, that would solve the ‘ascended problem’ altogether.

That’s a pretty unrealistic solution considering that Ascended is clearly the next tier. If they wanted everyone to compete on the same level in WvW, they would just use the same gearing model they have in sPvP for it.

You think this grind is bad? Wait awhile. GW2 is being released in Asia soon. Grindfest capital of the world.

Fext.3614:

Hello all, namely devs,
we crafters just need the 400ish crafting mats. Getting to it is boring. Please try to think about some way how to improve it.
1. keep the nodes on the same locations. Still boring to harvest the stuff, but at least less annoying and time consuming. I want to do something else than “reexplore” Cursed Shore running through all the boring mobs who try to gnaw at my heels
2. mark the nodes somehow on map so they look differently than mithril and cypres saplings
3. consider making some tough high level mining area guarded by vets or even champs where we can harvest the top stuff (only)
Thanks!

The nodes are fine as they are. The problem is the amount of mats you need to level 400 to 500. At release, it has been thought somewhat difficult to get an exotic once you get to lvl 80. It is not difficult enough to keep people playing for max gear, so they invented ascended. Nothing wrong with that either, but they should have at least halved the cost of exotics with the release of craftable ascended gear.

The cost of ascended stuff is quite ok, as it is, the kitten grind to reach skill 500 is not. How and where nodes of ore and wood spawn has never been an issue before, telling us, it is no issue now as well. But the cost of leveling is…

Grileenor.1497:

How and where nodes of ore and wood spawn has never been an issue before, telling us, it is no issue now as well.

While it is partially true for t6 mats (only partially, because raising craft to 500 requires crafting much more exotics than you’d usually do, which increases demand for mats manyfold), its completely untrue for t2-t5. Metal is generally okay, due to lesser per-ingot cost and existence of rich nodes, but wood, leather and cloth (the last one is not needed yet, but will be once armor crafting hits) are (or will be, in the case of cloth)suffering from severe shortage now.

KyreneZA.8617:

Vol.5241:

morrolan.9608:

fey.5438:

Google -> gw2nodes -> enjoy.

Still a grind. When T7 mats became the higher level T6 mats availability should have been increased. I said in another post that I felt like gouging my eyes out after farming to 500 artificer and I’ve still got weaponsmith and huntsman to go.

Everything in games are a grind. Otherwise what’s the point of playing? Do you want to log-in one day and have all your ori’s available in your inventory?

Or do you actually want to go out and work for your items?

Emphasis Mine

Most of us want to play this ‘game,’ not have it be a second/third job. Strawmen of “It’s an MMO, get used to it” or “It’s supposed to be a grind” needn’t apply. GW2 was supposed to be the paradigm shifting game that moved the MMOG leaps and bounds away from its bad past. While ArenaNet have done a lot right, the grind is unfortunately still with us, and exacerbated each time ‘new content’ asks more grind from the players.

While grind will get people logging in, it’s only a matter or time before they log out—often permanently.

People will logout permanently when there is nothing more to do, because that’s when boredom hits worse.
If you don’t want to work towards something, it means you don’t deserve it, so either buy gems and trade them for gold or give up on it.
In comparison, GW2 is the least ‘grindy’ game I’ve ever played. Almost everything you actually need can be achieved through a few hours of playtime.

So, in my opinion, you’re just lazy.
And before you pull out the “I have a life card”, I’d like to clear up that I’m a college student and also work from time to time.

FenrirSlakt.3692:

So, in my opinion, you’re just lazy.

Shows exactly how much you really know, Mr. Opinion…

At the moment, I kind of enjoy farming these nodes and doing various tasks in Frostgorge with several characters that I rotate in / out of the area as inventory fills up. I sort of look forward to the nodes changing as it changes the required route..

Frostgorge also offers some other activities that provide valuable rewards:

Hit Claw when he spawns (got chest 3 times yesterday and once this morning).
Tag along with Champ Train Zerg when I run across them.
Get the JP chest (usually park characters up there to wait for next reset).
Run the T6 mat notdes
Work on Dailies while doing all of the above

As mentioned above, if you are classifying what you are doing as “grind”, then you need to find something else to do (or possibly another game for a while).

Grileenor.1497:

The cost of ascended stuff is quite ok, as it is, the kitten grind to reach skill 500 is not. How and where nodes of ore and wood spawn has never been an issue before, telling us, it is no issue now as well. But the cost of leveling is…

My being a reasonably casual player i hadn’t tried upgrading mats in the Mystic Forge before. Last weekend i though I would give it a shot by buying 2-3 stacks of each type of T5 mat from the TP…..45 gold spent on T5 mats netted me aproximately 600 T6 mats…more than enough to craft all the exotics i need to max all 3 of the weaponcrafting skills.

Onyxpanther.7189:

Grileenor.1497:

The cost of ascended stuff is quite ok, as it is, the kitten grind to reach skill 500 is not. How and where nodes of ore and wood spawn has never been an issue before, telling us, it is no issue now as well. But the cost of leveling is…

My being a reasonably casual player i hadn’t tried upgrading mats in the Mystic Forge before. Last weekend i though I would give it a shot by buying 2-3 stacks of each type of T5 mat from the TP…..45 gold spent on T5 mats netted me aproximately 600 T6 mats…more than enough to craft all the exotics i need to max all 3 of the weaponcrafting skills.

Except… it’s currently a huge loss to upgrade T5 to T6, except for gossamer. You most likely got extremely, extremely lucky with the forge.

Onyxpanther.7189:

My being a reasonably casual player
…..45 gold spent on T5 mats ……

Your assessment of what a “casual player” is comes into question when you spend 45 gold to rush your crafting to 500. Now if that was a significant portion of your total stash, then I guess you could qualify for the upper end of “casual”…..

Calae.1738:

You think this grind is bad? Wait awhile. GW2 is being released in Asia soon. Grindfest capital of the world.

It’ll be interesting to see what effect that has, although I think I also read that ANet was considering keeping the Asian trading post separate from the existing one, precisely for that reason. I wish I remembered where I read that. :/

If they are on the same TP with NA and EU, it will likely make everything dirt cheap at first, but ANet’s response to that has been overwhelmingly ridiculous numbers of materials needed in newer recipes.