Guild Wars 2

I decided to find out how much coin could be made in one hour by simply farming and vendoring every drop. Exceptions being any item deemed an improvement of my current gear and any dye dropped that would be new to my collection. I was curious about this due to the multitude of threads concerning players ability to generate income vs. cost of desired items. This is nowhere near a scientific study. It’s just my results from a random area with no knowledge of whether or not it was a good farming spot.

I started at level 34 with 79 silver 10 copper. I farmed mostly beast types for one hour. I ended up with a few humanoid mobs from a dynamic event that decided to include me, and one port cost from death due to the ambush at the start of the event.

At the end of one hour I sold every drop to a vendor with the exception of one axe and one dye. I incurred one port charge of 29 copper during that hour. I had 92 silver 50 copper for a one hour total earning of 13 silver and 40 copper. I also leveled up to 35 which made tier 1 cultural armor available.

Based on this, if I were to purchase a fullset of tier one armor, I would need to farm for about 22 hours to get this armor. The downside being by the time I could afford this armor, I might possibly be at a level high enough that tier 1 just wouldn’t cut it anymore.

My thoughts are that if money generating methods continue to be watered down to the point where this is seen as the most efficient method to get your desired items, then we may well be approaching grind territory. I don’t support allowing dungeon farming, I’ll put that out front right now, but there needs to be allowances for money making methods in order to keep some excitement in the game. Let the Trading Post do it’s business as the players see fit. No one has to buy the overpriced and no one should be dictated a min/max price to sell. I want a TP that functions like a real commodities exchange. Economic laws of supply and demand will stabilize the TP given time. Possibly event loot should be examined and adjusted with more of a financial boost as a reward.

You don’t farm gold at level 34.

Transmute the L35 cultural armour later on when you have a full set of rares? I mean, it’s cosmetic after all – everyone out-levels that tiered armour. 22 hours is nothing at the end of the day.

Your constant is a little skewed though, as you did it for one random hour out of many, in one random location out of very many.

Farming can be very profitable if you target the right items, like blue crafting materials such as Tiny Claws and Green Logs.

Grey vendoring has never really been super profitable in any game, except WoW.

I do have to admit though, making even a single gold piece in this game is an epic grind. I wish I could transfer my Platinums from GW1 >_<

Eochaidh.4106:

You don’t farm gold at level 34.

I’ll accept that YOU don’t farm gold at level 34, but for the sake of my experiment I did Do I do this all the time? No, but income generation is a concern of players of all levels.

I think they make the cash reward for completing world events the most efficient way to earn gold. They could adjust certain events as zones get more and less active. It would be a great way to keep people moving around the world rather than massing them in the “sweet spots”

If your idea of farming gold is to farm random mobs and vendor everything you’re doing it wrong, lvl 34 or not

I bought my entire tier 1 cultural as soon as I hit 35, and didn’t do anything close to farming. Just played the game naturally. This game literally just throws money at you.

Liarian.4891:

If your idea of farming gold is to farm random mobs and vendor everything you’re doing it wrong, lvl 34 or not

This. GW2 isn’t like other MMO’s when it comes to farming. You’re not meant to mindlessly kill the same group of enemies over and over again, you’re meant to alternate between different activities and earn cash, karma and experience that way.

evilbottom.2186:

I bought my entire tier 1 cultural as soon as I hit 35, and didn’t do anything close to farming. Just played the game naturally. This game literally just throws money at you.

0/10

Liarian.4891:

If your idea of farming gold is to farm random mobs and vendor everything you’re doing it wrong, lvl 34 or not

After 2 years of WoW I am very well aware of what proper gold farming is. My experiment was done with the average player in mind and with the parameters I outlined. nothing more. nothing less. This isn’t about how to farm and if you thought it was you are missing the point. It is about keeping enough ways to generate a proper amount of gold to get gear or at least keep getting gear achievable without the GRIND of farming gold.

The average player won’t sit in one spot farming though – the average player will be dancing around zones, doing hearts and DEs. Then flogging the mats they don’t want on the TP.

Gold farming in WoW is a different beast. Completely.

VendettaDFA.9368:

Liarian.4891:

If your idea of farming gold is to farm random mobs and vendor everything you’re doing it wrong, lvl 34 or not

After 2 years of WoW I am very well aware of what proper gold farming is. My experiment was done with the average player in mind and with the parameters I outlined. nothing more. nothing less. This isn’t about how to farm and if you thought it was you are missing the point. It is about keeping enough ways to generate a proper amount of gold to get gear or at least keep getting gear achievable without the GRIND of farming gold.

First off the average player will never be farming the same mobs for an hour, hopefully they wont be vendoring every single drop either

So your experiment failed on a basic level imo. It’s like if i walked across the entire world and then stated travelling takes too long. You’re only using one single way of doing it, disregarding all other source of income and because of that your conclusion is pretty much useless

I think Arena Net has better numbers to guide their decisions on player income than what you provide here. Not only were you the experimenter acting as subject, allowing for any number of biases; you are also n = 1, when Arena Net has n= 2 million available to them. I think I’ll trust Arena Net to balance the economy with their data over your attempt to draw concern to what is likely a non-issue.

I’d also like to add that making money in wow is not the same as here. Also, years of experience counts for nothing if those years were spent doing it wrong in that game

I have a guildie who, despite 7 years of wow experience, had trouble paying for the 2g trait book at level 40. How that’s possible i will never know

Not saying you don’t know how to make money in GW2 or wow but just that experience only counts for something if you learned how to do it right

I find gold fairly easy to come by in GW2 as does the rest of my guildies except the person mentioned above. Your mileage may vary obviously but saying earning gold is a grind is simply wrong

evilbottom.2186:

I bought my entire tier 1 cultural as soon as I hit 35, and didn’t do anything close to farming. Just played the game naturally. This game literally just throws money at you.

Sorry this just is not True.

At level 46 i have 1 gold 60, and i would need 3 gold to buy the level 35 stuff. I do not waste gold in game.

Its obvious to me that lack of currency is a deliberate move to force the player to buy gems to swap for gold.

Flynch.6034:

Transmute the L35 cultural armour later on when you have a full set of rares? I mean, it’s cosmetic after all – everyone out-levels that tiered armour. 22 hours is nothing at the end of the day.

Yea b/c thats not 2 hrs short of a whole day……

Death Aggro.9602:

Flynch.6034:

Transmute the L35 cultural armour later on when you have a full set of rares? I mean, it’s cosmetic after all – everyone out-levels that tiered armour. 22 hours is nothing at the end of the day.

Yea b/c thats not 2 hrs short of a whole day……

So you want the whole cultural set inside of a day? At 4 hours a day it’s just over 5 days.

I don’t think I need to say anything more than that.

edit: bad maths

My Tier 3 armor cost more than 120 golds, no weapon included.
Not gonna do this by farming 1 gold everyday.

3-4 golds a day? Sure I’ll do it.

Maybe we just don’t know how to get money right now, but it needs to be balanced.

In one random hour of farming that I did 2 days ago, I made over a gold by targeting creatures that drop fine crafting materials and selling them on the TP.

Farmed the same area/type of creature a few times since then, but mostly just been playing through the world in Orr, Frostgorge and the like (yes, lvl 80).

I’ve expanded my inventory slots, bank, bought ~40 ectos, and other mats to get my crafting to 400 on both professions, and still have ~6 gold left to spend.

Currently watching the gem price waiting to get a good one to get some gems for more expansion.

Pict.5472:

evilbottom.2186:

I bought my entire tier 1 cultural as soon as I hit 35, and didn’t do anything close to farming. Just played the game naturally. This game literally just throws money at you.

Sorry this just is not True.

At level 46 i have 1 gold 60, and i would need 3 gold to buy the level 35 stuff. I do not waste gold in game.

Its obvious to me that lack of currency is a deliberate move to force the player to buy gems to swap for gold.

You’re probably right.
If I had to guess, the truth is he bought gems and converted them to gold.

Flynch.6034:

Transmute the L35 cultural armour later on when you have a full set of rares? I mean, it’s cosmetic after all – everyone out-levels that tiered armour. 22 hours is nothing at the end of the day.

What… 22 hours is 91.7% of a day.

Level 34. Irrelevant. Moving along.

Pict.5472:

evilbottom.2186:

I bought my entire tier 1 cultural as soon as I hit 35, and didn’t do anything close to farming. Just played the game naturally. This game literally just throws money at you.

Sorry this just is not True.

At level 46 i have 1 gold 60, and i would need 3 gold to buy the level 35 stuff. I do not waste gold in game.

Its obvious to me that lack of currency is a deliberate move to force the player to buy gems to swap for gold.

How is this not true? I reached level 36 and had 1 gold and 80 silver. I bought some cultural armor then and there and since then I’ve made about 2 or 3 gold (level 49 now). I’ve just been playing the game by exploring and completing areas. You get plenty of money that way. I haven’t felt the need to buy gems at all.

Liarian.4891:

I’d also like to add that making money in wow is not the same as here. Also, years of experience counts for nothing if those years were spent doing it wrong in that game

I have a guildie who, despite 7 years of wow experience, had trouble paying for the 2g trait book at level 40. How that’s possible i will never know

Not saying you don’t know how to make money in GW2 or wow but just that experience only counts for something if you learned how to do it right

I find gold fairly easy to come by in GW2 as does the rest of my guildies except the person mentioned above. Your mileage may vary obviously but saying earning gold is a grind is simply wrong

More important than experience is how you choose to play the game. I’ve had my first character at 80 for well over two weeks now, and I still haven’t been able to buy the Tier 3 skill book. Why? I have different priorities than those who are swimming in gold.

For instance, I have seven characters now and I use crafting as a means of leveling for each of them. That means, I don’t sell my collectibles. I keep them for the next leveling push. I have five capped disciplines now, one capped twice because I had enough mats to do it again all in one shot with an alt. And because I have so many alts, all needing their own storage space, I’ve invested in bank space and large bags for many of them. My main has three extra unlocked bag slots as well for extended play.

Also, because it’s important to me, I’ve bought gems with gold because I want stuff like minis, armor skins, dyes, storage, etc. Stuff that I really don’t need (except maybe the storage), but I really do want. To me, it’s part of the game. I suspect the person you mentioned may also have priorities that aren’t exactly conducive to the accumulation of wealth. It’s not that they aren’t pulling in the money, it’s that they are spending it as it’s made.

I’m pretty sure that if I wasn’t supporting a stable of alts and had been TPing the excess mats I was collecting, I’d have plenty of gold right now.

Making gold is all about priorities. I firmly believe that.

This obviously screams buy gems to afford stuff at the appropriate level.

I can easily make 1-2g an hour at level 80 by farming mats, Orr events and selling stuff that drops from said events.

If I get real lucky I can pull 3-4g an hour, depending on rare drops and gossamer salvaging.

So no, it’s really not that hard to make money later on. If I farmed for 4 hours a day, every day, i’d easily hit 20g a week and 80g per month – maybe more if I had some exotics drop.

I think people want to see their gold go spiraling into the hundreds and get angry when it doesn’t. Sorry, it doesn’t work like that in a new economy; only broken ones.

First and biggest mistake – dont vendor those items. A quick right-click to the trading post and you will earn substantially more from other players for certain mats.

It feels like you purposefully chose the least efficient method of farming to try and prove a point that really isnt valid. The reality is, especially at level 80 when you are dealing with rarer drops, you can make decent coin. I “farmed” the wolves and skelk in Icegorge for about an hour a few days ago for large (and the occasional vicious) fangs. I made about 8-10 times more from the trading post than I would have from the vendor (primarily because of the vicious fangs). Farming is a valid way to make coin, especially when interspersed with DE rewards and chest drops from large events like the Claw of Jormag.

Like Monsoon said, though, there is no real need to do this to remain competitive in the game. It is a real personal choice for once.

I’d say a massive portion of my profit comes from just selling all my stuff on the Trading Post.

Selling w/e greens/blues actually well enough beyond npc price. Even most of my crafting materials.

“How is this not true? I reached level 36 and had 1 gold and 80 silver. I bought some cultural armor then and there and since then I’ve made about 2 or 3 gold (level 49 now). I’ve just been playing the game by exploring and completing areas. You get plenty of money that way. I haven’t felt the need to buy gems at all”

You admit that at level 35 you had no where near enough gold for the lvl 35 set.

The other guy bought the complete set at lvl 35, thats the difference.

@ Blaeys

Your first misconception – you think i deliberately chose the least efficient method to prove a point that isn’t valid. Well my friend the point I am attempting to prove is that the BETTER alternatives such as the TP need to be allowed to flourish and generate profit instead of getting watered down because someone thinks flipping items shouldn’t be allowed. Letting the TP operate in all aspects is what should be allowed.

What I demonstated was a “scenario” of what could happen if all avenues of decent profit keep getting strangled. You fail to realize I am supporting free enterprise and showing the downside of heavy-handed profit sontrolling based on a few QQ threads about this or that shouldnt be allowed, when in fact it happens in the real world and its legal. I feel some never really got what I was saying in my last paragraph as you were too busy nitpicking my method.

Pict.5472:

evilbottom.2186:

I bought my entire tier 1 cultural as soon as I hit 35, and didn’t do anything close to farming. Just played the game naturally. This game literally just throws money at you.

Sorry this just is not True.

At level 46 i have 1 gold 60, and i would need 3 gold to buy the level 35 stuff. I do not waste gold in game.

Its obvious to me that lack of currency is a deliberate move to force the player to buy gems to swap for gold.

rofl 0/10

Fail attempt to troll.

Currency is sokitteneasy to get in this game, especially at 80.

I can farm Frostgorge Sound for 30m to 1hr and come out with 1-2g in profit. Just because people don’t know how to farm, or are new to farming doesn’t mean what you said. Stop putting lies into peoples minds.

@ Gopher

I dont care what you do at lvl 80, i am talking about level 35.

Away back under your rock.