Guild Wars 2

On the wait for the expansion being released I, like many other players, have been focusing on getting achievements and other personal goals completed. One of these was of course getting world map completion on a couple of my alts who were nearly there.

So I finally managed to get it on my engineer tonight, after several hours. It had been a while since I had done this the last time, and I was looking forward to a juicy reward. I didn’t remember what the reward had been before, other than the Gift, but with the changes to the levelling system and suchlike, I had hoped that there would be some extra loot or even some extra hero points we could put to use once the expansion was released.

Imagine my disappointment then when the only reward you get for total world map completion are the two Gifts of Exploration

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is certainly a need and a place for them. Legendary crafting is, and indeed will be, a large part of end-of-game prestige goals for many players. However I do see some problems with it, and not just for myself:

• Not all players will want to craft a Legendary, so there is nothing for them in this reward.
• Crafting a Legendary weapon is a very long term goal. Even if a player is currently saving up materials to craft one, that may not happen for a long time, meaning that even if the Gift of Exploration is useful to them, they cannot use it right now. There is a lack of reward that is instantly gratifying or useful.
• Although you get a little star next to your name, there is really no incentive for players to try and get map completion with their alts unless they desperately need more gifts for crafting a legendary weapon.

I have been trying to think of different things that might be put into the loot, or added to the account that would make world map completion more of a viable goal for people with alts. I wouldn’t want it to be too overpowering a reward, because then players might feel that they really -have- to do it on alts, and I know that many players can find map completion a bit boring.

On the other hand, if we look at open world boss fights, dungeons, or even the chest farms in the Silverwastes, it becomes clear to me that ordinary loot really won’t cut it. There is ample opportunity for players to get vast amounts of loot in a short space of time from participating in different events daily, so just giving a few champion style chests added into the reward really would be as much of a let-down.

So what does that leave us with in terms of options?
1. Unique Armour / Weapon skins
Pro: I love armour and weapon skins. I want them all!
Con: Finding a balance for the number of skins vs number of alts and players feeling they are more pressured into doing something just for that skin would be tricky.
We have something similar with the Pact weapons given at the end of the personal story. They used to be account bound, but eventually got changed into normal weapons that could be traded. I would not be in favour of having any weapon/armour skin gained by world completion being tradeable. Something more like the Hall of Monuments/luminescent skins (1 armour skin for all three types) would be better.

2. Account-wide upgrades (like +magic find +gold find etc)
Pro: This would make it useful all around
Con: Unless it was significant enough, it would have to be an addon with another type of loot.
We get these account-wide upgrades already with achievement chests, although I would argue that some of the increases for those (specifically magic find) are not really that high compared to just consuming essences of luck. On its own, I don’t think it has enough of an instant reward sort of feel to tip the balance, but with something else that does, it would be good.

3. Ascended Chest
Pro: This is an item that is already used in game for achievements
Con: Useful, but boring?
It used to be that getting an Ascended item was pretty rare, but it is far more commonplace now. Ascended items can drop from bosses, and you get them for achievements. Some are more rare than others of course (like the Sunless ones), and I think that considering the amount of time it takes to do a map completion, having it be a standard box is just a bit dull. But I am also having to remember that the map completion also gives the Gift (even if I can’t use it).

4. Hero Points
Pro: Hero points are going to be useful for Heart of Thorns Masteries since they are account bound, so if a significant amount were given for completing the map, this could be good.
Con: Might be a problem though if some players had maxed out their Masteries. Also, not that exciting.

5. Tyrian Explorers Society Writ of Travel (soulbound item that gives free waypoint usage)
Pro: I would love this. Waypoints can get costly if you travel a lot, and having the waypoint cost nullified would be awesome.
Con: I am not sure how much gold the waypoints add into the game economy, but this might disrupt it a little, at least temporarily.
I really like this idea, perhaps because it also goes with the theme that you see running through the map completion, with all those mails from them. I like the fact that it would be useful on a daily basis, and not overpowered, but also not just more of the same things we get for rewards elsewhere. Rewards should feel unique if its for something significant.

So yeah, there are some of my thoughts on the reward for map completion. My ideas are not that extensive, and there is plenty of room for other ideas out there of how it might be improved. I just hope it will be improved :)

I did my first 100% completion back in 2013, and I don’t remember getting anything other than the two gifts of exploration back then either. Maybe you’ve mistakenly mixed it with the map rewards you got for your last completed map? Map rewards can hold some nice surprises, especially with the high-level map that give two exotic equipment pieces and some t6 base materials.

These days, I have about a dozend gifts of exploration scattered across two accounts, and most likely won’t use them anytime soon, since I can’t be bothered to farm the gold and materials needed for a legendary. I tend to spend my gold on gems to get more outfits and minis from the store instead .

On the other hand, some of my friends do enjoy making legendary weapons, and have several each. They spend a considerable amount of their gametime doing map-completion not because they enjoy it (like I do), but to get more gifts of exploration. They do have all the gold and other materials already since their prefered game types give more of them than exploration does.

Personally, I think map exploration is in a good place reward-wise. It does give a good many rewards if you look at all the map-completion rewards you gather on the way, and the final reward is special enough to be of use to people looking for some “work-intensive” rewards, but not general enough to make many people feel like they’re forced to 100% explore on several characters.

Btw, you do get a chance at semi-special skins through map-exploration, since there’s a good chance of getting the region specific weapon skins from the higher level maps that give rare or even exotic equipment for full exploration. I know I was thrilled when my 2nd mesmer to fully explore got two etched exotics from the Frostgorge Sound completion chest, since both of those skins hadn’t found their way into my wardrobe at that point .

Ive said since early on map exploration should get a few extra rewards. The rewards from zones are fine, but unless the Gifts have other uses, then maybe an extra round of exotics or laurels or crafting mats etc could be added.

I think my preferred option is to widen the uses for the gifts

Rasimir.6239:

I did my first 100% completion back in 2013, and I don’t remember getting anything other than the two gifts of exploration back then either. Maybe you’ve mistakenly mixed it with the map rewards you got for your last completed map?

Yeah, I probably was. I just feel that while yes, you do get stuff for every map area completed, there should be something more than just the legendary gift item as a reward for the full completion. It’s like, you get used to thinking: ‘I finished the map, I can’t wait to see what I got!‘, and it makes you expect something a bit.. more, for getting them all done. It should feel special and rewarding, and to me, it just doesn’t.

Even the new daily log-in rewards offer something other than merely legendary crafting items. You get the choice. Perhaps there should be a choice for this as well, so that people that don’t want yet another bundle of gift of exploration can get something that they would value more.

I think an ascended chest would be appropriate for world completion. I think the current item reward of 2 gifts of exploration, is a bit disappointing to say the least.

I’m fine with the rewards of World Map Completions as they are – mats, keys/transmutation charges and exos.
I have done it 7 times so far and will go on.

I originally was thinking of getting 100% but now I am just “eh, if I get there I get there” when I found out how bad the rewards were. It seems the best is the “been there, done that” tag and the star. I could use that time better in any number of ways, both in-game and in real life.

Jana.6831:

I’m fine with the rewards of World Map Completions as they are – mats, keys/transmutation charges and exos.
I have done it 7 times so far and will go on.

You are likely thinking about the map completion rewards. World completion gives only gifts of exploration.

Astralporing.1957:

Jana.6831:

I’m fine with the rewards of World Map Completions as they are – mats, keys/transmutation charges and exos.
I have done it 7 times so far and will go on.

You are likely thinking about the map completion rewards. World completion gives only gifts of exploration.

How many of those map chests accrue while doing map comp? All I remember getting in GW for exploration was a title at the very end. Oh, and I got a nice congrats PM from another player when I made Legendary Cartographer.

Would I mind something unique for Map Comp? Of course not. However, it would have to be unique. 99.9% of the drops in GW2 are salvage or vendor bait, and based on past performance, the ANet version of a Map Comp reward is likely to be some random exotic(s) with undesired Runes/Sigils that cannot be salvaged anyway.

Now, were it to be an Asc. Armor or Weapon box which I could then convert to my stats of choice, that would be cool. However, they’d also have to make any such reward retroactive, or the kittenado would be unprecedented.

I’m not against the addition of a somewhat bigger award (Bag of t7 mats, ascended armor piece, a black lion claim ticket) would all be nice… but I’m waiting for a start for a legendary armor…

It’s a bit late now to be proposing this sort of thing. Most veterans have at least one map 100%. Many have multiples. Will those people be getting retroactive rewards? Especially since they had to do WvW as well as the PvE maps so they did more that the new 100%. Will they get more for doing more? Unless this has retroactive rewards to all the people who have already done it there will be a lot of unhappiness about this.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It’s a bit late now to be proposing this sort of thing. Most veterans have at least one map 100%. Many have multiples. Will those people be getting retroactive rewards? Especially since they had to do WvW as well as the PvE maps so they did more that the new 100%. Will they get more for doing more? Unless this has retroactive rewards to all the people who have already done it there will be a lot of unhappiness about this.

I don’t think it is ever too late to be considering this. Games should always be looking to improve and something like this is programmable.

I was thinking that it would be retroactive, linked to whether your character already has the world completion star. If your character has the star next to their name then they would trigger the mail to give them the new reward item.

But that aside, come on guys, surely you have some other ideas for rewards you might like to see for this sort of thing? Get creative!

Being a PvE person with 8 map completions, I would be getting the rewards 8 times, if not 9 or 10 eventually. There are a fair number of people however who hate PvE, only do WvW or PvP and who only do map completion because they must, for a Legendary. If the rewards are too good then it will feel like the game is unfairly rewarding playing only one way and not the other two. So any rewards needs to be balanced out with something for the other two types of players or it can’t be so good that PvP/WvW players feel that their playstyle is unfairly punished.