Guild Wars 2

It seems my last post on this topic was worded poorly and my intent was lost in what appeared to be a vent. Ok. I admit. I did vent a bit. So I am going to try this again.

I have a disagreement with the Requirement of doing Dungeons in the Monthly Tasks.

Now. That does not equate to a problem with the dungeons themselves. I understand that the Developers wanted to make them hard, that they took pride and a mark of ego in making challenging content. That is fine, it is their game, and they can do what they please in that regard. In fact, making hard dungeons sends a clear message out to those seeking the challenge to rise up to them and tackle them.

It also sends the message that these Dungeons are not for everyone.

Ok. That last bit is very important. By making the Dungeons part of the Monthly, that is sending a message that they expect everyone to do them.

Thus, the Dungeons are for everyone.

See how that sends a very mixed signal to the games masses. Now I am fine with making prohibitively hard dungeons, if that is their claim to fame, and something they want to brag about, then cool, but, make it clear, that they are not for everyone.

Their inclusion in the Monthly Requirement means they are being Thrust upon Everyone and that is a very confusing and mixed message, because now everyone is expected to do them. You really can’t have it both ways.

I also feel that it pulls from the joy of doing a dungeon. No longer is doing a dungeon for the fun or challenge of doing, but now becomes an obligation or a chore to do, to get a Monthly Done.

Unlike gathering, which I do because it’s there and a part of the game, and lets be honest, it’s not really “fun” to gather, I mean, I don’t go “Wow. Hitting that Ore with a Pick axe was sooo exhilarating” ;-)

But anyway, I would like the requirement for Dungeons to be removed from the Monthly as it sends a very mixed message about what placement Dungeons have in this game.

O for the love of… Monthly’s are not for everyone! You don’t have to do monthly achievements! It’s as optional as dungeons! If you want it, you have to enter dungeons. Period.

I dunno, to me it isn’t any different than having crafting or gathering (or underwater kills) being a part of dailies. They’re ALL part of the game, whether you choose to do them or not is up to you. You’re not required to do the daily/monthly.

That being said, story mode counts towards the monthly too, so there you go. Easy task to complete.

Monthlies are not required. This isn’t a job, it’s a game. Play for your enjoyment not to chase gear or achievements.

Good hunting!

Zoophagous.2395:

Monthlies are not required. This isn’t a job, it’s a game. Play for your enjoyment not to chase gear or achievements.

Good hunting!

This. And not to mention some of the dungeons are easily doable even for casual players. I’ve already done that part of the Monthly and I wasn’t even trying.

Shimond.2478:

I dunno, to me it isn’t any different than having crafting or gathering (or underwater kills) being a part of dailies.

Really?

Not to be rude, but, do you mean to tell me that you need to get 4 other people to help you do your daily crafting and underwater kills because they are designed to be that hard and challenging?

That being said, story mode counts towards the monthly too, so there you go. Easy task to complete.

Thanks, but, I play this game every day, and I am in a great guild of amazing people, Dungeons are not a problem for me.

I am commenting on the paradox of putting something out that you expect everyone to do (monthly) and then including something on that list that was designed to be prohibitively hard to accomplish.

Some dungeon paths are hard, some are really easy. Saying they are all prohibitively hard to accomplish just because you need a group is silly.

I should have made a post ranting everytime there was a required WvW kill quota to complete for monthly.
/firstworldproblems

Zoophagous.2395:

Monthlies are not required. This isn’t a job, it’s a game. Play for your enjoyment not to chase gear or achievements.

Good hunting!

You know. The truth is, You are free to do or not do anything you like.

Now, maybe I missed the memo somewhere, but when it comes to games that have a means to progress in them, I like to, well, move forward along that progress line. hence why I bother to move around once I log in. I mean. Sure, I guess some people might be inclined to log in and then not do anything, or perhaps, just not do anything progressive in the game.

We are in fact not required to do anything, even the most basic stuff like level or even kill a single mob. Sure, you look at a game with that outlook and approach, however, people would tend to call that Watching TV, unless it’s the discovery channel, then you might learn something in the process.

While your game time, is of course, your own, to play as you like, when I log in it’s to progress somehow. Either by loot, levels, something. Otherwise, there really is no motive to log in. While you can log in and not do anything, I personally don’t see the point of approaching a game with that mentality.

Quests are meant to be done, land masses explored, mobs killed, gear acquired, and levels gained, are what playing an MMO is about.

But, that is not relevant.

What is relevant, is that everyone is given a nice monthly task to do, something to guide them in a direction in the game. Much like a Daily gives a player a motive to something today, a Monthly gives a player something to look forward to all month. Something, perhaps, easy, that can be accomplished by the majority of the players.

So if they put enough Personal Story in, to fill the monthly, then kudos. My point is settled, if they have not, then why do they even bother to make a Dungeon difficult to the point of being discouraging, then say “Come one and all you should do this several times this month”

It’s a weird mixed message that is being put out. Either they want everyone to enjoy dungeons or they don’t. I would imagine they want everyone to enjoy crafting, map exploration, killing mobs and gaining levels. Which is why they are not that hard to do and can be done solo in your free time as you can.

Dungeons however, are not the same, they require groups, and can be very difficult and discouraging, which is not a good combo for someone who is just trying to finish their monthly for a few paltry digital baubles.

XGhoul.7426:

I should have made a post ranting everytime there was a required WvW kill quota to complete for monthly.
/firstworldproblems

I find this odd, You have a separate WvW Monthly Accomplishment, why would anyone put a WvW quota in a generic monthly?

Ungood. it used to be a req 50/50 kills for each regular monthly, in fact i have never ever completed a monthly due to this old requirement. I always wanted too, but never did WvW. I was so happy when i saw it was moved/removed

JJBigs.8456:

Ungood. it used to be a req 50/50 kills for each regular monthly, in fact i have never ever completed a monthly due to this old requirement. I always wanted too, but never did WvW. I was so happy when i saw it was moved/removed

Kudos!

See. This is my point.

Sometimes, removing things that send mixed messages has a positive impact. In the end, players like yourself are happier for it, things get better overall and the game moves on.

Despite some protesters who feel the need to rally against it, we see that Change is Not always Bad.

Ungood.3054:

Really?

Not to be rude, but, do you mean to tell me that you need to get 4 other people to help you do your daily crafting and underwater kills because they are designed to be that hard and challenging?

Crafting no, but underwater really is annoying for me. However I’m not going to make a post about how it should be removed from the lineup simply because I don’t enjoy that facet of it (nevermind that I’m doing that daily as opposed to monthly). My point is that all these things are part of the game. The monthly is supposed to be about variety of tasks, to get you out of your comfort zone and doing something different (I believe).

Thanks, but, I play this game every day, and I am in a great guild of amazing people, Dungeons are not a problem for me.

I am commenting on the paradox of putting something out that you expect everyone to do (monthly) and then including something on that list that was designed to be prohibitively hard to accomplish.

The only paradox I’m seeing here is that you claim dungeons are not a problem yet you claim this is also “prohibitively hard to accomplish”.

you guys are honestly equating the difficulty of a dungeon to the difficulty of WvW kills, underwater slayers, and gatherer? ROFL!!!

seriously. i failed my first attempt at CM today. you know what i did to go cool down from my frustration? KILLED TWO DRAGONS.

something is askew somewhere.

i would gladly take 50 monthly kills in WvW over needing to do dungeons for my monthly.

Shimond.2478:

Crafting no, but underwater really is annoying for me.

You think dungeons are easy and yet have a problem with underwater kills?

Seriously?

I feel like you are posting this because you have not yet been able to complete a dungeon. So you are saying that everyone should suffer because YOU cannot do something. YOU are entitled to your monthly. MONTHLIES should include only part of the game not the entire thing. Did I miss anything?

katz.8376:

you guys are honestly equating the difficulty of a dungeon to the difficulty of WvW kills, underwater slayers, and gatherer? ROFL!!!

seriously. i failed my first attempt at CM today. you know what i did to go cool down from my frustration? KILLED TWO DRAGONS.

something is askew somewhere.

i would gladly take 50 monthly kills in WvW over needing to do dungeons for my monthly.

I much prefer doing dungeons than 50 WvW kills.

Underwater is easy. Most white underwater mobs that you can kill in 1 hit count for the daily/monthly.

Ungood.3054:

Shimond.2478:

Crafting no, but underwater really is annoying for me.

You think dungeons are easy and yet have a problem with underwater kills?

Seriously?

I don’t have a ‘problem’ with underwater kills, I find them annoying but I do them (all 25 of them each day). A few dungeons over the course of a month (which I’ve already completed by day #4) is trivial in comparison.

Story modes count as dungeons…

It takes me 1hr to do all 5 dungeons. It takes me also 1-2hours to do all 50 kills of WvW.

The monthly is designed to cover different aspects of the game. It’s not meant to appeal to your comfort zone. If you’re not comfy with doing some of the monthly’s do not do them. Anet isn’t forcing you to. You are forcing yourself to do them whether you like it or not because of the reward that a monthly gives.

Shimond.2478:

The monthly is supposed to be about variety of tasks, to get you out of your comfort zone and doing something different (I believe).

Actually I took the Monthly as a Suggestion by Arenanet for things to keep you busy and might be fun to do.

But even if I was to look it from your perspective of “lets try something new”

They should not then turn around and say “We Designed our Dungeons to Brutalize you, and force you fight tooth and nail for victory, this is not for the weak or lesser players”

I mean it’s fine that they made dungeons hard. in case you missed that, I have no problem with the intent that Dungeons are meant to difficult.

But in doing so, they should not then turn around and invite their player base to throw themselves at this task with the understanding they designed their dungeons defeat their efforts.

Thanks, but, I play this game every day, and I am in a great guild of amazing people, Dungeons are not a problem for me.

I am commenting on the paradox of putting something out that you expect everyone to do (monthly) and then including something on that list that was designed to be prohibitively hard to accomplish.

The only paradox I’m seeing here is that you claim dungeons are not a problem yet you claim this is also “prohibitively hard to accomplish”.

While I’ll most likely do CoF a few times, or AC or whatever, and just get my marks done, no big. That does not mean I should then turn a blind eye to something I see as not right and In this case, my issue is that they are sending a Mixed Message.

The Monthly is a “Fun Finder” something they invite their masses to go have fun doing to keep people occupied and doing stuff.

Their Dungeons are designed to be detrimentally hard to do, requiring timing, skill, gear, and know how to even attempt.

Putting the two of them together sends a very mixed signal.

i used to not like it and i went off to cursed shore in JQ, to my suprise i found 4-5 randoms killing random stuff in the ocean. we even did killed a champ broodmother, the UNDERWATER ONE, which i never knew existed.

try going to a popular spot right after daily resets and you might find some poeple, making it more fun and faster

i’ve done AC a few times. it was margainally fun. sucks to be me, tho, i did them BEFORE the monthly requirement came up.

i’ve mostly been avoiding dungeons… why? because i’ve watched my husband run them. doesn’t look like much fun. now… Anet is dangling the shiny carrot in front of me. no, i don’t HAVE to do a dungeon at all ever… no one is holding a knife to my throat, of course not. but if i want the shiny, i DO have to do the dungeons. yeah, the carrot is there to entice me to try something new… however, that something new should make me ENJOY the game more, not HATE it more.

Ungood.3054:

Their Dungeons are designed to be detrimentally hard to do, requiring timing, skill, gear, and know how to even attempt.

Putting the two of them together sends a very mixed signal.

You might have a point if story mode didn’t count towards the credit. They are not requiring you to do explorable dungeons for the monthly credit.

you guys are talking like storymode is SOOOOOOO much easier than the paths.

they both suck. >.> storymode just sucks a little less

katz.8376:

you guys are talking like storymode is SOOOOOOO much easier than the paths.

they both suck. >.> storymode just sucks a little less

Opinion

I don’t like doing certain things, but I will do them because I want my monthly done.

If Anet gave a precursor for doing all 100% of jump puzzles, you can bet some people would have a horrendous time getting it done while others will gladly be pleased at how easy it is. Not everything is meant for everyone. If you want it, regardless of whether you like it, you’ll do it.

heh. if i get hit with a monthly requirement to do the jump puzzles (as opposed to just FINDING them, like last month’s req) that’s one month i’ll not be getting that month’s reward.

XD

Except that story mode dungeons were meant to be casual and explorable mode dungeons were meant to be challenging. Since story mode dungeons count, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Anyway, there are dungeon paths that aren’t very challenging at all (and some that are more so). Pick an easier one.

A reasonable group can get through Ascalon Catacombs in less than half an hour on the Ghost Eater path. A good group can do it faster.

Ungood.3054:

Really?

Not to be rude, but, do you mean to tell me that you need to get 4 other people to help you do your daily

If you want the achievement and rewards for the monthly, you may have to do things that aren’t your favorite, period. That’s how achievements work in every game that has them.

So yes, if you want the monthly, you find 4 other people and get it done in ~2 hours, or you figure out how to solo something at a slower pace over the course of the month that the achievement is active.

Ok with all this said. If a guy wanted to attempt the monthly, what dungeon would you recommend as easiest or least frustrating?

Draconus.9786:

Ok with all this said. If a guy wanted to attempt the monthly, what dungeon would you recommend as easiest or least frustrating?

Cof Path 1

Ioflux.4369:

Draconus.9786:

Ok with all this said. If a guy wanted to attempt the monthly, what dungeon would you recommend as easiest or least frustrating?

Cof Path 1

CoF 1 for Exploreable

but I still have to say the easiest is CM Story.

If you can’t manage CoF or AC explore, then GW2 probably is too hard for you.

First off, it is 5 dungeons.

Moving on from there…
Dungeons are apart of the game! Just as much as gathering and crafting. It is the elite content that players are meant to be playing with their in-game free time to seek rewards and loot! Every game has time sinks, it’s how they survive. Don’t hate the monthly completing just because it makes you play content you are meant to be playing anyways!

Perhaps I should create a thread complaining about gathering, I mean I feel like it is such a waste of time to try and cut a tree or gather ore I have no use for! Oh never mind I won’t do that.. Cause it would be stupid..

Fury.6281:

First off, it is 5 dungeons.

Moving on from there…
Dungeons are apart of the game! Just as much as gathering and crafting. It is the elite content that players are meant to be playing with their in-game free time to seek rewards and loot! Every game has time sinks, it’s how they survive. Don’t hate the monthly completing just because it makes you play content you are meant to be playing anyways!

Perhaps I should create a thread complaining about gathering, I mean I feel like it is such a waste of time to try and cut a tree or gather ore I have no use for! Oh never mind I won’t do that.. Cause it would be stupid..

Ok. Well, maybe they need to stop putting in the weak sauce requirements like gathering and just go back to requiring things like castle siege and WvW slayers.

I mean if they are going to require elite content that you should be doing, lets not mix the message. Lets make it the elite stuff, only the elite stuff you should be doing anyway.

My request is simply to not send mixed messages like equating gathering to running a dungeon.

If people can’t fathom that equating gathering to running a dungeon is sending a mixed signal, then maybe the real problem is there not enough elite dungeon quality level content that should be required to get a monthly.

So maybe the real answer is to not dribble down the requirements, and along with the Dungeons they should be require harder stuff, stuff like claiming a castle, getting 5 keeps, and slaying 50 people in WvW to make it clear that this is not for the faint or the weak.

After all, at the end of this last month I had a castle, 8 keeps, and over a 200 kill count (and this was my first month playing the game). So, I mean then it should be easy for the elite players who think Dungeons are too hard for little ol’ me. Right?

So, perhaps the problem is not that Dungeons are too hard, but that gathering is too easy and the two should not be mixed together.

I’ll leave that open to the developers, but I humbly ask that this mixed messages stop please.

WvW in my opinion is not a pve activity. As you face other players. So once again in my opinion, it does not belong in a monthly based on pve activities but it is there so i do it. And I guess you didn’t quite catch all the sarcasm from the last comment.

Edit: what loflux said is accurate. It does its job by making us experience different parts of the game that we otherwise may never try. The jumping puzzle monthly was an example of this.

You just don’t get it lol. The monthly is designed to grasp different aspects of the game from WvV to Dungeons to Fractals to Crafting/Salvages to Dynamic Events. Whats “hard” and what isnt is going to be subjective to the masses since people will prefer one thing over the other. It isn’t about being too hard or too easy, it’s about getting you to do everything regardless of whether you like it or not “IF YOU WANT YOUR MONTHLY COMPLETED”.

Fury.6281:

Edit: what loflux said is accurate. It does its job by making us experience different parts of the game that we otherwise may never try. The jumping puzzle monthly was an example of this.

That is my very point.

The Monthly is Designed to get Everyone to experience the game, a little check list of things to see and do if you will.

At the same time it has been made clear that the Dungeons are designed to not be doable by everyone.

It’s like making a list a things to see and do in New York, like Find the Empire State Building, Ride the Ferry, See the Statue of Liberty, etc, all simple easy things and then adding Run the Marathon to it and only those that complete the list get a cookie.

You don’t see the paradox there?

won’t this be fixed when they implement the optional req’s for dailies/monthlies?
where you’re given 6ish options and you only need to complete 4ish of them to get your daily/monthly.

I do see what you are staying but I think you are off. If you can’t find a way to complete at least one of the dungeons with each having their own paths inside and repeat it 5 times… Well then I just don’t think you deserve a monthly reward and may even want to seek out a different game.

Point being that there are what, 8 dungeons? All but arah, which has 4, having 3 paths. This, along with reroll ability to another profession that could potentially make dungeons more easy, and having the ability to have others help you complete the path… I don’t see how this can be anywhere near impossible but rather just blatant laziness.. So once again ill say it.. Laziness = no reward for you.

Edit: typo.

Ungood.3054:

Fury.6281:

Edit: what loflux said is accurate. It does its job by making us experience different parts of the game that we otherwise may never try. The jumping puzzle monthly was an example of this.

snips

At the same time it has been made clear that the Dungeons are designed to not be doable by everyone.

…snips..

You don’t see the paradox there?

Hmm, dungeons are designed to “not” be doable by everyone? Did I miss the memo by Anet? It’s only 5 x dungeon runs. And the echo everyone above, you are not required to do the monthly as well. To go to the extreme, some people might find it harder to craft than to do dungeons. It’s all subjective. I never did monthly before this, and I only attempt this month (hopefully onwards) because of the rewards. If you want it, you will do it.

abelooi.9156:

Hmm, dungeons are designed to “not” be doable by everyone? Did I miss the memo by Anet?

Apparently, you did.

“Dungeons are huge, private adventure areas that only teams of high-level players dare explore. "

Feel free to see how they do not pitch their Dungeons as a Come one and All. https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dungeons/

I just want to throw my 2 cents here…

I used to run dungeons all the time in another MMO because I had to. Sure, I could choose not to, but then I would be behind in gear progression compared to my raid mates etc. So it was not an option to skip the dungeon grind. It was boring. Same thing over and over for months…it wore me out.

When GW2 was announced, I got excited because it promised I wouldn’t have to do what I don’t want to do to enjoy the game. The game had been delivering on those promises…until the new Fractals and Laurels kicked in. Here comes the familiar gear grind and the “you have choice but not really” deal again. I ran Fractals, didn’t care for it much and the prospect of having to run them over and over to get some gear put me off; but I did it to get the monthly done. It wasn’t fun. When laurels came out, I was excited because now I didn’t have to run fractals to get ascended gear. I was extremely disappointed to know that I had to run dungeons. I have been to a few dungeon runs but none of the runs were fun for me. A few elitist jerks in my runs didn’t help it either.

You say you don’t have to do monthly if you don’t want to? Monthly awards you 10 laurels! That’s 10 days worth of dailies. That’s a lot of tokens to give up. We have a choice…theoretically…to ignore the monthly, but when the reward is something we really want, do we really have a choice? There is a lot of pressure to get the monthly done. It isn’t a simple matter of “don’t do it if you don’t want to”. When the game starts to make you feel like you “must” do something because you “want” something…game becomes a chore, a grind. It is already starting to feel this way. Such a pity, because I have been loving this game otherwise.

If ANet really wants people to “just do what you love doing” and still not be penalized for it, then they should bring out real options sooner rather than later. “Complete 5 out of 7 choices to complete monthly” would be wonderful. I’d gladly skip fractals and dungeons because I really love this game but really hate having to do dungeons over and over. Been there, done that.

Well after trying COF path 1 as recommended earlier, I can say it wasn’t very hard at all. Did all five runs for the monthly in under an hour. I only died a total of 4 times. So if a guy with no dungeon experience can pull it off just about anyone can. All it takes is learning the path and making sure to evade as much as you can.

Draconus.9786:

Well after trying COF path 1 as recommended earlier, I can say it wasn’t very hard at all. Did all five runs for the monthly in under an hour. I only died a total of 4 times. So if a guy with no dungeon experience can pull it off just about anyone can. All it takes is learning the path and making sure to evade as much as you can.

No argument that anyone can be carried through a dungeon. Just tried s a CoF path 1.. was great till we had to get people to follow orders then no one could figure out how to stand next to a torch.

Ungood.3054:

Draconus.9786:

Well after trying COF path 1 as recommended earlier, I can say it wasn’t very hard at all. Did all five runs for the monthly in under an hour. I only died a total of 4 times. So if a guy with no dungeon experience can pull it off just about anyone can. All it takes is learning the path and making sure to evade as much as you can.

No argument that anyone can be carried through a dungeon. Just tried s a CoF path 1.. was great till we had to get people to follow orders then no one could figure out how to stand next to a torch.

Sounds to me like player failure, and should be not be used to judge difficulty of the game.

I want dungeon monthly removed too.

I don’t want to play with baddies just so they can do their monthly.

I find it amusing that people still refer to what anet “said” about dungeons during the pre-release era. When was that blog post released? 2010, 2011? I also remember reading something about the dungeons being for “groups with voice communication” or similiar lines, only for the best of the best. It seems that blog posts like this leave quite lasting impressions and beliefs among players as we have seen quite many opening posts like this concerning dungeon monthlies.

But let’s face it. How things ACTUALLY are as of fifth of february, 2013? There has been power creep, dungeon paths have been nerfed and in general people are starting to learn how to play their characters efficiently. I did my DM title within the first month of the game solely with pugs for the sake of achievement and even back then dungeons were nowhere near that difficulty what was mentioned in the blog post. So arenanet is not forcing you to do any “elite” content, it’s only a false perception of dungeons that some of the players seem to have.

www.gw2lfg.com
Now having said this, I humbly recommend you to give it a shot. It might not be on your comfort zone but you might even like it or find rewarding after you try. Because, let’s see
AC: all 3 paths can be pugged in 1-2h without speedrunning
CM: don’t really know about the status of this
TA: same as AC afaik
SE: no idea
CoF: first path takes like 10-15 minutes
CoE: no idea
Arah: considered the hardest

So, if you example decide to pick cof as your dungeon, it would take about 1h 15mins (let’s just say 2h assuming some kind of worst case scenario.) That’s really not that bad of a time investment if you divide the five runs for five different days. You also earn a good 2-3g for doing them.

yamay.8075:

I just want to throw my 2 cents here…

I used to run dungeons all the time in another MMO because I had to. Sure, I could choose not to, but then I would be behind in gear progression compared to my raid mates etc. So it was not an option to skip the dungeon grind. It was boring. Same thing over and over for months…it wore me out.

When GW2 was announced, I got excited because it promised I wouldn’t have to do what I don’t want to do to enjoy the game. The game had been delivering on those promises…until the new Fractals and Laurels kicked in. Here comes the familiar gear grind and the “you have choice but not really” deal again. I ran Fractals, didn’t care for it much and the prospect of having to run them over and over to get some gear put me off; but I did it to get the monthly done. It wasn’t fun. When laurels came out, I was excited because now I didn’t have to run fractals to get ascended gear. I was extremely disappointed to know that I had to run dungeons. I have been to a few dungeon runs but none of the runs were fun for me. A few elitist jerks in my runs didn’t help it either.

You say you don’t have to do monthly if you don’t want to? Monthly awards you 10 laurels! That’s 10 days worth of dailies. That’s a lot of tokens to give up. We have a choice…theoretically…to ignore the monthly, but when the reward is something we really want, do we really have a choice? There is a lot of pressure to get the monthly done. It isn’t a simple matter of “don’t do it if you don’t want to”. When the game starts to make you feel like you “must” do something because you “want” something…game becomes a chore, a grind. It is already starting to feel this way. Such a pity, because I have been loving this game otherwise.

If ANet really wants people to “just do what you love doing” and still not be penalized for it, then they should bring out real options sooner rather than later. “Complete 5 out of 7 choices to complete monthly” would be wonderful. I’d gladly skip fractals and dungeons because I really love this game but really hate having to do dungeons over and over. Been there, done that.

Just my two cents too. You know, you don’t need the laurels to have fun, if that’s what you want. You just need to wait 10 more days for the same amount of laurels you’d had 10-days earlier, just by doing dailies. It is a game for crying out loud, you literally can choose to do what you love doing. The only thing at risk here is pride, as we can see. No, you can’t bear the thoughts of everyone having that new shiny amulets so you must have it too. No, you can’t bear everyone having that legendary so you must have it too even though you hate the grind.

The thing is Anet makes it so that everything in this game is obtainable both by casual players or hardcore. The only difference is the time needed to get them. Which makes perfect kittening sense, if you ask me. If someone put in more effort to do something, they should be getting it faster than you.

In many other MMOs there simply isn’t this choice. Either you do this, or you lose out on this magnificent piece of gear that you simply can’t do without. Now tell me in gw2 what stuffs that if you don’t do this, you will lose out on? You could argue ascended backs, but wth, how many points of stat of upgrade is it from the one you could get using karma?

I’d rather do fifteen dungeons than craft. Honestly. I have never liked crafting in any rpg. I have not once crafted, even when it was almost mandatory to get the best stuff. /shrug. The point is that the monthly wasn’t meant to be easy. You can get ascended gear with the laurels. Do something you hate doing, for a reward that’s worth it. Deal with it, or just don’t do it. It’s that simple. There is no difference between me hating to craft and you nto being able to finish a dungeon. It’s a task we hate doing, but if we want the reward, we do it. Dungeons are not that hard with the right group and competent people. For that you need to be social to find them. Welcome to social gaming.