Guild Wars 2

You’re about 15 months late to the party on this one. People were asking the same questions when Lost Shores was revealed in November 2012. It changed nothing. Anet had decided that vertical progression was here to stay, and nothing anyone could say was going to change their mind about it. Comfort yourself with the knowledge that it’s not really that much better than exotic gear.

That ship has sailed, sunk, and been the target of numerous ill-fated salvage operations.

Just buy everything. No grind required!

Here is the general problem. Above all else Anet is a company that is in the business of making money. If you remove vertical progression you only keep the most dedicated players, if they are lucky they may keep 20% of players. This is not enough to keep a game and servers up and running. If you remove the grind to get things, people get things to fast and they have to develop at a pace that is unrealisitc. The grind is needed to keep people in the game trying to get things while they work on the next thing people will need to grind to get. As much as this system sucks it is the only way to keep the maximum people in the game playing.

After saying that i would agree the grinding sucks. But grinding is not the problem here. The problem is RNG combined with unbalanced crafting recipes. First RNG is a system that has no place in this type of game. Everything should be obtainable through some kind of repeatable way, basically quests or gathering, so introduce ways to directly gather all base mats, add in skinning and shearing, done.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Just buy everything. No grind required!

Cannot buy ascended armor. You can buy legendary weapons but at their current cost that is a MUCH bigger grind than crafting an ascended weapon. Ascended trinkets are fortunately not a grind just time gated.

echo.2053:

No grind = no goal to work towards = no point to continue to play. If you don’t want asc items no problem you can still effectively play the game. The problem lies that our society lacks patience. We want everything yesterday with as little effort as possiable.

Huge difference between a goal and a grind. A well designed system has player goals that are fun to achieve. As soon as those goals are put on a basic treadmill, welcome to a grind. I already have a job and do not want to play at another.

I would argue that Ascended Trinkets are a good example of how to implement a goal without placing it on an obvious grind. Most players can get these simply by playing the game the way they always have either in PvE or WvW. It takes time to get them but they aren’t having to speed inordinate amounts of time grinding for cash, crafting and materials.

I do have patience! I have played GW2 diligently since release day, have tolerated it’s early months of bug filled gaming. I have 5 lvl 80’s, three characters with maxed crafting lvl’s, a number of ascended weapons and celestial armor. I however wouldn’t pay time or gold, or grind for the ascended. Besides, I don’t really care for it’s appearance and the difference in stats doesn’t warrant the effort anyway.

No grind =/= No grind required.
Many MMOs you NEED to grind to get to level cap for example, here you only grind a bit if you want the 5~10% better equip than the very easy exotic tier gear.
In GW2 you really don’t need to grind at all, but you have the option to grind if you want.

Death Prosecutor.8713:

Anet’s Pre release hype was “no more grind”, basically realizing the “grind” issues and how disenchanted players of GW were with it. Now we have the Ascended Armor / FOTM “Grind”. What the heck Anet? Was pre release hype re: No grind just a con job? Would seem a bit hypocritical to me. This games direction is going to vertical in my opinion. I think Anet is shooting itself in the foot!

You’re mistaken. There’s already no “required” grind in the game. You make the choice to grind for the Ascended gear, therefore it’s your own doing.

ps – I already have a full set of Ascended weapons, armor, and trinkets… plus my Legendary. I did the grind, and never complained once. The game is fine.

Look at the other mmorpgs to put what you have to do for Ascended armor in contexts. In most of them you have to work off of an RNG to get the right armor to drop on more of a treadmill type system or an RNG of the ability to get the recipes to craft it. That and the “NEED” for ascended armor vs the need for other games top level armor. Even the new games will have a worst need for top level gear and the ability to get the gear will be much more grindly in that there will be more of a treadmill effect. GW2 still is the most casual game when it comes to getting loot and getting the “best” gear.

Just lets it go man. This was discuss all over each time an ascended pieces was release. Grind is relative to everybody. Grind is a repetitive content that you don’t like but keep doing only for the reward. For someone, Fractal is nice and doing it is not a grind, while another one hate it but keep doing it for a Ascended Back item or other ascended trinkets.

Jski.6180:

Look at the other mmorpgs to put what you have to do for Ascended armor in contexts. In most of them you have to work off of an RNG to get the right armor to drop on more of a treadmill type system or an RNG of the ability to get the recipes to craft it. That and the “NEED” for ascended armor vs the need for other games top level armor. Even the new games will have a worst need for top level gear and the ability to get the gear will be much more grindly in that there will be more of a treadmill effect. GW2 still is the most casual game when it comes to getting loot and getting the “best” gear.

It has been pretty easy to get best-in-slot gear. Until Ascended gear showed up, but it’s not that huge a performance jump.
As for confronting the (o so loathsome) RNG, just try making a Legendary weapon. RNG for the precursor (when we were promised crafting months ago), RNG x777 for the Mystic Clovers, etc, etc.
I don’t mind the treadmill, because I have no sense of urgency to get the tippy-top gear, and already have an ascended hammer. What I do mind is the utterly inane things I have to do to grind out some of the materials: the biggest sin of which is having to use 3rd-party sites for boss timers so I can farm dragonite ore. (Though, if they keep using it as incentive like they did for Marionette, I’m still game~)

http://www.youtube.com/embed/1g5gUweGK5I?start=1579
Ah the no gear grind philosophy, one of the well known pillars of the company it’s probably pining for the fjords.
You are too late Death, as you can see from the star, what echo says is now an opinion shared by a lot of people.

Rauderi.8706:

Jski.6180:

Look at the other mmorpgs to put what you have to do for Ascended armor in contexts. In most of them you have to work off of an RNG to get the right armor to drop on more of a treadmill type system or an RNG of the ability to get the recipes to craft it. That and the “NEED” for ascended armor vs the need for other games top level armor. Even the new games will have a worst need for top level gear and the ability to get the gear will be much more grindly in that there will be more of a treadmill effect. GW2 still is the most casual game when it comes to getting loot and getting the “best” gear.

It has been pretty easy to get best-in-slot gear. Until Ascended gear showed up, but it’s not that huge a performance jump.
As for confronting the (o so loathsome) RNG, just try making a Legendary weapon. RNG for the precursor (when we were promised crafting months ago), RNG x777 for the Mystic Clovers, etc, etc.
I don’t mind the treadmill, because I have no sense of urgency to get the tippy-top gear, and already have an ascended hammer. What I do mind is the utterly inane things I have to do to grind out some of the materials: the biggest sin of which is having to use 3rd-party sites for boss timers so I can farm dragonite ore. (Though, if they keep using it as incentive like they did for Marionette, I’m still game~)

But that not NEED RNG that more of WANT RNG in other mmorpg you have to first get a drop make sure that the drop is the one you can use becuse it could be for other classes and other builds and then you have to RNG roll for it vs other ppl. That is a treadmill RNG that is far worst then a WANT RNG that in GW2. That the thing there is no treadmill in GW2 the gear has no real effect on your ability to kill harder mobs you can run the top level events in greens all but one extremely high event and that event was made for ppl who want that type of play.

When ppl talk about RNG and grind you need to compare it to other like games and that is other mmorpg. When you look at games like ESO (is a slow grind game) and Wild star (is going to be a raid treadmill endgame) you will find that GW2 is the most easy to the top then the others and is the easy getting the gear you need. You can call getting level 2 in GW2 a grind if you want but to have nothing to compare it to the statement means nothing. So just stating its grindly or it RNG with nothing but the statement your saying effectively nothing.

The only RNG required for Legendary is the mystic clover, the precursor you can just buy from TP, and even so when you “fail” the mystic clover recipe you get other material that is used in the crafting of the legendary … almost a win-win situation.

Jski.6180:

But that not NEED RNG that more of WANT RNG in other mmorpg you have to first get a drop make sure that the drop is the one you can use becuse it could be for other classes and other builds and then you have to RNG roll for it vs other ppl. That is a treadmill RNG that is far worst then a WANT RNG that in GW2. That the thing there is no treadmill in GW2 the gear has no real effect on your ability to kill harder mobs you can run the top level events in greens all but one extremely high event and that event was made for ppl who want that type of play.

When ppl talk about RNG and grind you need to compare it to other like games and that is other mmorpg. When you look at games like ESO (is a slow grind game) and Wild star (is going to be a raid treadmill endgame) you will find that GW2 is the most easy to the top then the others and is the easy getting the gear you need. You can call getting level 2 in GW2 a grind if you want but to have nothing to compare it to the statement means nothing. So just stating its grindly or it RNG with nothing but the statement your saying effectively nothing.

Nooot even sure what you’re going with there.

I do just fine in the exotics I’ve made for myself, and I’m casually building up to various ascended mastery with my alts.

To be honest, I doubt have an issue with the Legendary crawl (99.5% world map, arglblargh) if they just made precursors craftable, as they said they would. It wouldn’t even have to be an easy precursor, just possible without having to spend 400-2000 gold or getting imperiously lucky on world drops/Mystic Forge. Heck, make it a Mystic Forge recipe: 4 specialty items that cost laurels, skill points, dragonite, and gold, blend that into one “precursor” item, then forge that with 3 exotics of the same type, and cheer your new precursor weapon.

Not necessary, obviously. I do just fine with my hammer, anyway, but it evens things out, at least.

Rauderi.8706:

Jski.6180:

But that not NEED RNG that more of WANT RNG in other mmorpg you have to first get a drop make sure that the drop is the one you can use becuse it could be for other classes and other builds and then you have to RNG roll for it vs other ppl. That is a treadmill RNG that is far worst then a WANT RNG that in GW2. That the thing there is no treadmill in GW2 the gear has no real effect on your ability to kill harder mobs you can run the top level events in greens all but one extremely high event and that event was made for ppl who want that type of play.

When ppl talk about RNG and grind you need to compare it to other like games and that is other mmorpg. When you look at games like ESO (is a slow grind game) and Wild star (is going to be a raid treadmill endgame) you will find that GW2 is the most easy to the top then the others and is the easy getting the gear you need. You can call getting level 2 in GW2 a grind if you want but to have nothing to compare it to the statement means nothing. So just stating its grindly or it RNG with nothing but the statement your saying effectively nothing.

Nooot even sure what you’re going with there.

I do just fine in the exotics I’ve made for myself, and I’m casually building up to various ascended mastery with my alts.

To be honest, I doubt have an issue with the Legendary crawl (99.5% world map, arglblargh) if they just made precursors craftable, as they said they would. It wouldn’t even have to be an easy precursor, just possible without having to spend 400-2000 gold or getting imperiously lucky on world drops/Mystic Forge. Heck, make it a Mystic Forge recipe: 4 specialty items that cost laurels, skill points, dragonite, and gold, blend that into one “precursor” item, then forge that with 3 exotics of the same type, and cheer your new precursor weapon.

Not necessary, obviously. I do just fine with my hammer, anyway, but it evens things out, at least.

Legendary is the end all be all it should take a lot of time and work and there needs to be a rarity of seeing them on ppl. What the point of Legendary if every one has one?

Jski.6180:

Rauderi.8706:

Jski.6180:

But that not NEED RNG that more of WANT RNG in other mmorpg you have to first get a drop make sure that the drop is the one you can use becuse it could be for other classes and other builds and then you have to RNG roll for it vs other ppl. That is a treadmill RNG that is far worst then a WANT RNG that in GW2. That the thing there is no treadmill in GW2 the gear has no real effect on your ability to kill harder mobs you can run the top level events in greens all but one extremely high event and that event was made for ppl who want that type of play.

When ppl talk about RNG and grind you need to compare it to other like games and that is other mmorpg. When you look at games like ESO (is a slow grind game) and Wild star (is going to be a raid treadmill endgame) you will find that GW2 is the most easy to the top then the others and is the easy getting the gear you need. You can call getting level 2 in GW2 a grind if you want but to have nothing to compare it to the statement means nothing. So just stating its grindly or it RNG with nothing but the statement your saying effectively nothing.

Nooot even sure what you’re going with there.

I do just fine in the exotics I’ve made for myself, and I’m casually building up to various ascended mastery with my alts.

To be honest, I doubt have an issue with the Legendary crawl (99.5% world map, arglblargh) if they just made precursors craftable, as they said they would. It wouldn’t even have to be an easy precursor, just possible without having to spend 400-2000 gold or getting imperiously lucky on world drops/Mystic Forge. Heck, make it a Mystic Forge recipe: 4 specialty items that cost laurels, skill points, dragonite, and gold, blend that into one “precursor” item, then forge that with 3 exotics of the same type, and cheer your new precursor weapon.

Not necessary, obviously. I do just fine with my hammer, anyway, but it evens things out, at least.

Legendary is the end all be all it should take a lot of time and work and there needs to be a rarity of seeing them on ppl. What the point of Legendary if every one has one?

What is the point of Legendary if every one can buy one ?

Since the content is balanced around rares / exotic armors (besides worm?) I don’t really feel like there’s a grind. Sure I got my legendary and it was a long process.. but I didn’t need it.. I wanted it. Same goes for ascended armor. Don’t feel I need it, but eventually I’ll want it.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Just buy everything. No grind required!

Nice! Please show me where to buy my Ascended armor I can’t find any on TP or gem store!!!

Xia.3485:

Since the content is balanced around rares / exotic armors (besides worm?) I don’t really feel like there’s a grind. Sure I got my legendary and it was a long process.. but I didn’t need it.. I wanted it. Same goes for ascended armor. Don’t feel I need it, but eventually I’ll want it.

And that’s the right attitude to have. Grats on the Legendary.

Draknar.5748:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Just buy everything. No grind required!

Nice! Please show me where to buy my Ascended armor I can’t find any on TP or gem store!!!

Clearly meant buy the mats for it so you can retain your sanity during the time gated little grind.

Straegen.2938:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Just buy everything. No grind required!

Cannot buy ascended armor. You can buy legendary weapons but at their current cost that is a MUCH bigger grind than crafting an ascended weapon. Ascended trinkets are fortunately not a grind just time gated.

echo.2053:

No grind = no goal to work towards = no point to continue to play. If you don’t want asc items no problem you can still effectively play the game. The problem lies that our society lacks patience. We want everything yesterday with as little effort as possiable.

Huge difference between a goal and a grind. A well designed system has player goals that are fun to achieve. As soon as those goals are put on a basic treadmill, welcome to a grind. I already have a job and do not want to play at another.

I would argue that Ascended Trinkets are a good example of how to implement a goal without placing it on an obvious grind. Most players can get these simply by playing the game the way they always have either in PvE or WvW. It takes time to get them but they aren’t having to speed inordinate amounts of time grinding for cash, crafting and materials.

Yeah a goal and grind are different but they are interlinked. What makes a goal worthwhile? How easy and fast you can achieve it or how hard and tedious?

Pretend that legendaries, titles, asc items, ranks , achievement points don’t exist. What then are you playing for? Is it the content or player/friend interaction? Would it be enough to keep you logging in everyday?

Yeah you could argue that and rightfully so as we all have our opinions. For trinkets it’s generally about 2 weeks or so to obtain right? If I told you that I decided to make the bolt on the 5th of this month, that I got my precursor from the mf 3 days ago spending only 60 gold and that I only need half t6 and gift to go then you’d prolly say I was lying about the time frame. But I am not and I don’t religiously grind either, I have a total of 2000 hours with a week and a half being afk from when I fell asleep in a spvp hot join game ( if you didn’t know you don’t get logged out).

On the other side of the spectrum when you think of monthly you’d prolly think it’d take time and yet most of us are done by at least the 4th day effortlessly. Do you care more for it or less then a regular daily.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Draknar.5748:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Just buy everything. No grind required!

Nice! Please show me where to buy my Ascended armor I can’t find any on TP or gem store!!!

Clearly meant buy the mats for it so you can retain your sanity during the time gated little grind.

I know but how do I buy the Account Bound items?

EDIT: Unless you are saying everything except those items. Can you also buy your way to 500 crafting to make the items?

Death Prosecutor.8713:

Anet’s Pre release hype was “no more grind”, basically realizing the “grind” issues and how disenchanted players of GW were with it. Now we have the Ascended Armor / FOTM “Grind”. What the heck Anet? Was pre release hype re: No grind just a con job? Would seem a bit hypocritical to me. This games direction is going to vertical in my opinion. I think Anet is shooting itself in the foot!

Players wanted grind, ANet gave them grind. Also one could make the argument you don’t need ascended gear… unless you like running high level fractals in which case you’re pretty much already into grinding.

echo.2053:

Yeah a goal and grind are different but they are interlinked. What makes a goal worthwhile? How easy and fast you can achieve it or how hard and tedious?

And all come down to two keywords: hard and tedious.
In my very own vision one of them is a wondeful word (if not mixed with open world content and pugs…), the other one it is not.

Draknar.5748:

Can you also buy your way to 500 crafting to make the items?

Yes, by exotic crafting.

Belzebu.3912:

Draknar.5748:

Can you also buy your way to 500 crafting to make the items?

Yes, by exotic crafting.

That doesn’t even make sense to me. I can buy my way to 500 by crafting? That’s not buying my way to 500, that’s me crafting to 500. Every manufacturer in the world has to buy materials to create something, this is no different.

It’d be a pretty interesting world if metal fabricators had to mine their own ore, refine it, smelt it, and then make their parts. Or carpenters having to cut down their own trees, and process them into the proper planks.

It is perfectly acceptable and encouraged to purchase any and all materials you can from the TP in order to craft. Creates a healthy economy.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Death Prosecutor.8713:

Anet’s Pre release hype was “no more grind”, basically realizing the “grind” issues and how disenchanted players of GW were with it. Now we have the Ascended Armor / FOTM “Grind”. What the heck Anet? Was pre release hype re: No grind just a con job? Would seem a bit hypocritical to me. This games direction is going to vertical in my opinion. I think Anet is shooting itself in the foot!

You’re mistaken. There’s already no “required” grind in the game. You make the choice to grind for the Ascended gear, therefore it’s your own doing.

ps – I already have a full set of Ascended weapons, armor, and trinkets… plus my Legendary. I did the grind, and never complained once. The game is fine.

but you are a grinder/merchant going by your posts, which is fine, but you are the outlier when it comes to an adventure game. This systems you are talking about specifically reward the type of gameplay you do.
Most people didnt think they would have to grind materials or gold for 3-4 hours a day for 2-3 months to get best in slot gear for one set.

As far you make the choice, thats like saying scoring baskets is optional in basketball. The game gives you more power if you do X, this basically means the game is telling you to do X to succeed. If game designers are rewarding you for playing the game the way they dont want you to play, thats not really a good design

phys.7689:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Death Prosecutor.8713:

Anet’s Pre release hype was “no more grind”, basically realizing the “grind” issues and how disenchanted players of GW were with it. Now we have the Ascended Armor / FOTM “Grind”. What the heck Anet? Was pre release hype re: No grind just a con job? Would seem a bit hypocritical to me. This games direction is going to vertical in my opinion. I think Anet is shooting itself in the foot!

You’re mistaken. There’s already no “required” grind in the game. You make the choice to grind for the Ascended gear, therefore it’s your own doing.

ps – I already have a full set of Ascended weapons, armor, and trinkets… plus my Legendary. I did the grind, and never complained once. The game is fine.

but you are a grinder/merchant going by your posts, which is fine, but you are the outlier when it comes to an adventure game. This systems you are talking about specifically reward the type of gameplay you do.
Most people didnt think they would have to grind materials or gold for 3-4 hours a day for 2-3 months to get best in slot gear for one set.

As far you make the choice, thats like saying scoring baskets is optional in basketball. The game gives you more power if you do X, this basically means the game is telling you to do X to succeed. If game designers are rewarding you for playing the game the way they dont want you to play, thats not really a good design

Take into account that most people got their gear via dungeons. they skipped the pleasure of farming t6 mats and thus fulfilled their need as quickly as possible. Now they are forced to work for a mere 5% and find it so hard, even though its not required.

That kind of a weird example to use but i guess i can try to use it. Shooting in basketball is optional if your out to have fun and get exercise. If your goal is wining then yes shooting isn’t optional, I might be mistaken so correct me if im wrong all the NBA stars were born stars they never put in time and effort right?

I actually don’t mind the grind. My only issue with it is the drastic changes in gear balancing. I am not grinding for something that they are going to radically nerf.

They either need to eliminate the grind, or stop balancing so wildly.

echo.2053:

phys.7689:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Death Prosecutor.8713:

Anet’s Pre release hype was “no more grind”, basically realizing the “grind” issues and how disenchanted players of GW were with it. Now we have the Ascended Armor / FOTM “Grind”. What the heck Anet? Was pre release hype re: No grind just a con job? Would seem a bit hypocritical to me. This games direction is going to vertical in my opinion. I think Anet is shooting itself in the foot!

You’re mistaken. There’s already no “required” grind in the game. You make the choice to grind for the Ascended gear, therefore it’s your own doing.

ps – I already have a full set of Ascended weapons, armor, and trinkets… plus my Legendary. I did the grind, and never complained once. The game is fine.

but you are a grinder/merchant going by your posts, which is fine, but you are the outlier when it comes to an adventure game. This systems you are talking about specifically reward the type of gameplay you do.
Most people didnt think they would have to grind materials or gold for 3-4 hours a day for 2-3 months to get best in slot gear for one set.

As far you make the choice, thats like saying scoring baskets is optional in basketball. The game gives you more power if you do X, this basically means the game is telling you to do X to succeed. If game designers are rewarding you for playing the game the way they dont want you to play, thats not really a good design

Take into account that most people got their gear via dungeons. they skipped the pleasure of farming t6 mats and thus fulfilled their need as quickly as possible. Now they are forced to work for a mere 5% and find it so hard, even though its not required.

That kind of a weird example to use but i guess i can try to use it. Shooting in basketball is optional if your out to have fun and get exercise. If your goal is wining then yes shooting isn’t optional, I might be mistaken so correct me if im wrong all the NBA stars were born stars they never put in time and effort right?

shooting in basketball is never optional unless you arent playing basketball, if you are trying to get excerise, while running with a basketball, it isnt called basketball, its called dribbling excerise.

the analogy wasnt meant to go towards work and effort though, but applying the analogy to the effort situation,

you essentially have a game where to get prepared to be successful at basketball, you have to do something fairly unrelated to basketball to succeed. This happens in real life all the time, its called a job. You have to work at something you dont like doing to get prepared for something you like doing.

like if you had to be a janitor to buy basketball sneakers and a gym membership. This is different from playing every day versus challenging opponents, or even waking up early to practice shooting/dribbling/passing. I would rather do the latter to improve my abilities in the game.

Now if i buy a game, i dont mind refining my skills and having to practice to succeed, but thats not what we have to do for ascended armor, we have to play the most money/resource per hour game, every day for 2-4 hours, for 2-3 months

Also as far as the dungeon runners, its not that they didnt work for their gear, the key difference is they worked at it while actually doing the thing they bought the game for. Also make no mistake, im not against crafting, and i dont think that crafting should have no place in ascended. However I really dont think the implementation is incentivizing crafting properly (which has now become that thing everyone has to do for gear) and its not incentivizing the type of endgame gameplay that most people would expect/want from a adventure type game

I kind of was saying how gold have no use for me on the forum. After that all of a sudden a set of ascended armor cost like 500 gold. For me I would like 3 set on my guardian which would cost 1500 gold.

Even though I could afford it now. I just don’t want to spend money like that. I dont’ wvw so that’s not a problem for me. And I’ll probably give up fractal after I reach 39. So I dont’ need to maximize agony resist.

echo.2053:

Yeah a goal and grind are different but they are interlinked. What makes a goal worthwhile? How easy and fast you can achieve it or how hard and tedious?

They do not have to be linked. A goal can be difficult to achieve and enjoyable to attain. The introduction of tedious elements is what makes a goal a grind… it is not the difficulty of the goal.

The following is a legitimate question, since I haven’t even started working towards ascended gear.

What materials are actually considered the “grind” materials?

echo.2053:

No grind = no goal to work towards = no point to continue to play. If you don’t want asc items no problem you can still effectively play the game. The problem lies that our society lacks patience. We want everything yesterday with as little effort as possiable.

Dont wory you and people like you will get what you need/want?Anet just removed %bonus on gear so its redy for adding new tier/s of gear.All the people that grind already have full ascended and they are bored hehe,wonder if Anet can catch up with adding tiers and keap all the people in the game that dont like gear progression.Lots of lies “statements” and spins will hapen funny times ahead hehe.

TChalla.7146:

The following is a legitimate question, since I haven’t even started working towards ascended gear.

What materials are actually considered the “grind” materials?

Since you asked, the following are the materials needed to craft an Ascended Coat (light armor).

Different people are going to find gaining different parts of this “grindy” based on what has to be done to get the mats and whether they like that content or not. Alternatively, most of these items can be bought, meaning you have to gain gold. Gaining gold may be grindy or not, again based on what you do and whether you like it. My guess, though, is that most of those complaining about grind for Ascended are looking at a massive list of mats needed and considering the whole gathering process.

I can safely say I do not have a single piece of Ascended Armor, and am in no rush to do so. I kinda understood the gnashing about weapons (as the overall damage was not insignificant), but armor in a game that is pretty much predicated on avoiding as much damage as possible isn’t quite a big of a deal for me.

chemiclord.3978:

I can safely say I do not have a single piece of Ascended Armor, and am in no rush to do so. I kinda understood the gnashing about weapons (as the overall damage was not insignificant), but armor in a game that is pretty much predicated on avoiding as much damage as possible isn’t quite a big of a deal for me.

ya I can get away with exotic armor. Since I don’t WvW or intend to do high level fractal.

I’m quite surprise I can actually craft bolts of damask every few days just playing normally. So I wont’ even need to spend money on it.

Bah I didn’t craft a single thing for my ascended armor, except for the actual piece of armor itself (purchase chest plate, chest pad, insignia, farm Vision Crystal = $$$) because the time-gated materials are a foolish distraction for me.

I prefer to spend my time playing; and so that’s specifically what I do. Dungeons all day. Plenty of pocket change to just buy-out an armor set. The most difficult part for me is Dragonite Ore. I was just about ready to pay someone to do it for me for the last 500!

chemiclord.3978:

I can safely say I do not have a single piece of Ascended Armor, and am in no rush to do so. I kinda understood the gnashing about weapons (as the overall damage was not insignificant), but armor in a game that is pretty much predicated on avoiding as much damage as possible isn’t quite a big of a deal for me.

Wait, what?! You do realize that the armor value of your armor is the least important thing it brings to the table, right? You also get attributes and rune slots, all of which contribute to your damage output.

About that “it’s not required” nonsense. Literally nothing is required of you. So what, that’s beside the point. We all choose to play this game, and some of us choose to get the best gear available for our toons. The point is, if you want the latest tier of gear that Anet introduced, you have to grind a kittenload of account bound mats. The only thing we can reasonably argue over is whether people like the amount of grind, or would they prefer less, or maybe even more.

Transcended armor when? Collin pls.

echo.2053:

No grind = no goal to work towards = no point to continue to play. If you don’t want asc items no problem you can still effectively play the game. The problem lies that our society lacks patience. We want everything yesterday with as little effort as possiable.

Not really, Crafting is just boring. People want rewards that come from methods that contain more excitement and involvement, not just grinding materials and money.

If Anet made another segment to PS that was exciting and difficult but also fun and had an interesting storyline that awarded ascended gear at the end of it, then I for one wouldn’t care how long it took as long as I enjoyed the ride. Instead, in order to get Ascended weapons/armor we have to constantly zerg, killing the same things over and over again, creating the same things over and over again to level up crafting. It’s not fun, and that’s what games are made for.

Belzebu.3912:

No grind =/= No grind required.
Many MMOs you NEED to grind to get to level cap for example, here you only grind a bit if you want the 5~10% better equip than the very easy exotic tier gear.
In GW2 you really don’t need to grind at all, but you have the option to grind if you want.

There it is.
Anet’s MMO Manifesto was a group of intentions. It was obvious that they would not be 100% succesfull at all of them. Specially because it was an ambitious Manifesto.
There will always be grind in MMOs, it’s in the structure of the game.

Where they were somewhat sucessful was in making a game where grind is not mandatory. You dont need to grind to make exotics. You don’t need to repeat the same things 1000 times a day to get full exotic armour and weapons. You can get those by exploring. And with exotic items you can play well enough. I mean it’s not a HUGE difference between Ascended and Exotic items. Ascended gives you some advantage but it’s not mandatory in order to play the game.

Besides you can get all materials for Ascended crafting but doing several diferent things and not repeating always the same.

Got the money for all the ascent armor but haven’t got any so far,why its min stat gain and you make so much gold on selling damask

Will maybe get it when they add some better infusion stuff or rune that require ascent armor.

IndigoSundown.5419:

TChalla.7146:

The following is a legitimate question, since I haven’t even started working towards ascended gear.

What materials are actually considered the “grind” materials?

Since you asked, the following are the materials needed to craft an Ascended Coat (light armor).

Different people are going to find gaining different parts of this “grindy” based on what has to be done to get the mats and whether they like that content or not. Alternatively, most of these items can be bought, meaning you have to gain gold. Gaining gold may be grindy or not, again based on what you do and whether you like it. My guess, though, is that most of those complaining about grind for Ascended are looking at a massive list of mats needed and considering the whole gathering process.

I don’t have ascended gear either, but I took a look at your list and I can honestly say that looks like very little grind to me. I literally have everything on that list already except all of that silk, which whatever that’s easy enough to get.

Is that seriously what people are complaining about!?! I mean really?! I just play the game normally and I have all of the dragonite, bloodstone, and fragments on that list already that I would need. 500 of each is NOT a lot for BiS.

All this time I really thought the grind whiners actually had some sort of basis for their whining, but if that list is accurate for requirements I am seriously disappoint.

I’m not a hardcore player at all (I play about 2 hours a day), and I hate any sort of grind, and still I crafted my legendary about the same time as the ascended weapons appeared and I finished my ascended armor almost 1 month about its launch.

Most of the people whining about the grind are the ones that only do QD or FG trains, so they lack some of the ascended materials, or are the people that only play the TP and buy everything, except the items that can’t be bought, so they would need to “grind” to get them.

Really, if you play just a bit of everything like a few hours of WvW per week, do a couple world bosses a day and do the guild missions, you’ll be flooded with the ascended materials.

Fascinating thread, and the comments made by the majority of posters is fascinating as well. Just imagine the majority response to this topic a mere 12 months ago …

So my oh my, just look how the demographics of the Gw2 player base have changed since November of 2012!

Well done Anet; you pulled it off.

Ision.3207:

Fascinating thread, and the comments made by the majority of posters is fascinating as well. Just imagine the majority response to this topic a mere 12 months ago …

So my oh my, just look how the demographics of the Gw2 player base changed since November of 2012!

Well done Anet; you pulled it off.

I assume you are referring to the general pro-ascended / grind sentiment. I hate ascended gear and think it’ s terrible in all aspects. Nothing good came from it.

However, I also don’t care anymore to debate the subject, I’ve said my peace and was ignored. There is no reasonable way to know if ascended gear saved the game, will eventually kill it, or neither.

TChalla.7146:

The following is a legitimate question, since I haven’t even started working towards ascended gear.

What materials are actually considered the “grind” materials?

It’s not the materials per se that are considered grind. It’s the quantity of those materials. Like the 900 mithil, 360 platinum, 810 iron and 30 orichalcum ore, 450 elder, 180 hard, 90 seasoned, 240 soft and 30 ancient wood (and a ton of other stuff ) for one ascended GS. Or things like over 10k silk scraps (again, in addition to other stuff) for a set of ascended light armor.
Basically: t2-t6 basic mats (metal, wood and cloth. Leather is not used that much so it’s not as hard as others to gather rrequired quantities). Ironically, t6 mats might be the easiest of those – the worst choke points would be iron, soft wood and cloth in general.
Additionally bloodstone dust, dragonite ore and empyreal shards. You need 500 each for a single weapon, or 1500 for an armor set. Depending on your preferred gameplay style, those might be a heavy grind, or really easy to get.
Each ascended crafting gear requires also some dark matter – those can be acquired only from salvaging exotics. That again may be problematic or not, depending on how much exotics you get normally, and what you usually do with them.