Gift of Battle Feedback from a PvE Player

Gift of Battle Feedback from a PvE Player

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Posted by: Aldric the Slayer.5784

Aldric the Slayer.5784

I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since two months after launch and I’ve been dedicated to PvE adventuring. I tend to shy away from PvP and WvW because, frankly, I’m not that competitive, and I kind of hate that type of gameplay. I just don’t find it fun. That being said, I’m nearing the crafting of my Nevermore staff (the first legendary I’ve made in a while) and I’ve noticed that there is no way to obtain the Gift of Battle without participating in WvW. I’m really frustrated by that because not only am I terrible at it, like I said before, I simply don’t enjoy it and have never taken much of an interest in it, despite trying several times. I can mindlessly farm PvE and still have a great time, but I think that making it necessary to spend between 5-10 hours, depending on buffs, in WvW to get a vital crafting component for a legendary weapon is ludicrous. Arena Net, please show some more love for the dedicated PvE players. Give us a way to get Gifts of Battle without having to engage in gameplay we dislike. I play Guild Wars 2 to relax and to escape. I don’t want to come home from work to do more work with the game I normally come to to unwind.

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

I’m a PvE player myself, to the point if I’m in WvW and I see an opposing player I’ll start trembling and I’ll waypoint out. That said, EotM isn’t that bad. Get in a zerg and kill doors for a while. Also, you can do WvW dailies like kill a veteran mob or stand in a Monument circle to claim it.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

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Posted by: RSLongK.8961

RSLongK.8961

I was in the same boat. Just do the easy wvw dailies (kill vet, capture vet, take ruins) and you will get your gift of battle before any other grind. kitten owner of nevermore.

Main: Warrior|Character counter: 16

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

WvW was required at launch for the badges and for maybe a year after that before they introduced the Achievement chests. Players also still needed WvW for the gift of exploration until 2015(?).

That said, you can progress the reward track without interacting with players by doing the “PvE stuff”. Ruins, camps, and sentries all increase participation which can be done solo. You can also do the dailies that can be done solo as well. I think I’m completing an entire reward track within a month of doing the solo only WvW dailies.

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Posted by: ArchonWing.9480

ArchonWing.9480

I agree that the Gift of Battle is in a bad spot. I think the Gift of Exploration should be able to replace it.

You may want to give Edge of the Mists a shot. It’s generally more casual and most people are focused on farming reward tracks/karma and not really about fighting as much.

I’d also like to repost one of my suggestions for how to deal with WvW for those that don’t like it.

Here’s what I think is the perfect solution: Nomad/cleric druid (If you can get full nomads, that’d be ideal):
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWRjUqQLL2wCmsAXLWyEM4ZaONo+UDWATsmkVA4AUy0OD-TVSDAB+q+jEHCge1Fklyvc2fg7HAwxXAAAOCAGqEUMALB-w
Staff/GS. You can kill NPCs with your pet (set to passive and select targets directly), and can disengage against other players easily. And you can always tell your pet to stop attacking people too. Also turn off autoattack.
You will be relying on daily rewards mostly— log off if you have no more dailies to do. Aim for: Daily Sentry, Monuments, Veteran Creature Slayer, Defender. Guard Killer, Dolyak. Camp if you want, though note it’ll take longer.
Kill guards and take camps to boost your participation. If you manage to get the participation up a bit, you can afford to hang around.
This will minimize the time you spend in WvW and also avoid combat at all costs. With 3 movement skills, swiftness by spamming the heal skill, and stealth you can run away from mostly anything. You won’t be able to kill people, and people won’t be able to kill you.

Obviously this would have to change depending on class. Druid is still the best I think. Also adjusted to reflect current leather prices cough: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWRjUqQLL2wCmsAXLWyEM4ZaONo2ksCAHgnawCYiVizTD-TlSDABHfBA218DOq/w9DAQiDBQv6CA4IAAsyPDVCO/+DiBYJ-w

(Note that “twister in a jar” exotic accessory has nomad stats. If you can’t get nomad, anything with vitality will suffice). You can get nomad’s jewelery if youi go to the LS3 zones but since not everyone can do that, I’m just going to leave that as a suggestion) I’d also recommend the peppermint oil utility for the extra karma boost and stats. And as in the original post, melandru runes are fine if you don’t want to get durability. Although WvW is a pretty good way of getting durability runes.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.

(edited by ArchonWing.9480)

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Posted by: Maethor.2810

Maethor.2810

I also hate the fact that we need to go a WvW track for the Gift of Battle. I suck at any form of PvP and I have anxiety (which mixes very poorly with a battle with other players) so it never ends well.

But I will echo Flesh Wounds’ suggestion: EotM isn’t as bad as the borderlands. Go in, see if a commander is running a zerg around, pop some boosts and have at it. Occasionally there are some OMG moments if large groups of other players come up but I’m not as bothered by it as I am in the borderland maps. Might be because EotM seems to have a more relaxed feel to it and that usually there’s a group of other people to run with.

~Signe Grimsdottir | Wynne Everheart | Magiere Massing~
The Archivist’s Sanctum [Lore] – Just Us Grown-Ups [JUGS]

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Posted by: Tanner Blackfeather.6509

Tanner Blackfeather.6509

I was really sceptical, but came to enjoy off-peak roaming. However, I understand your frustration.

One option is to do WvW dailies that you find ok – I recomend Big Spender, Veteran Creature Slayer and Master of Monuments as these can generally be done without much interference from enemy players. The Warg in Alpine Borderland is usually a spot where people from different servers don’t initiate fighting if you’re just standing around (at least on EU servers).

If you can play on off peak hours, it’s a lot easier to avoid other players. Those times Camp Capturer, Land Claimer, Caravan Disruptor and Guard Killer are generally free from interference.

All of the above are essentially PvE objectives, and as dailies offer a Reward Track Potion giving 250 points progress. You’ll need 80 to finish a track without any other progress – do dailies and hang around for a little bit for extra progress when it’s calm, bug out as soon as dailies are done if there’s a lot of fighting.

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Posted by: SlippyCheeze.5483

SlippyCheeze.5483

Also useful: running around capturing ruins one after the next is usually pretty quiet (unless it’s a daily), and will give you max participation. It’s the least interactive way to do WvW reward tracks, but it works. Do it on your own borderlands for minimum pain.

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Posted by: DeanBB.4268

DeanBB.4268

That’s what I do, dailies such as the veteran critter or monument, and I finished the GoB track quite a while ago for if I ever decide to make a legendary. If I find WvW to be “crowded” then I try another map or just skip it that day.

Sometimes if I find myself unable to sleep early in the morning, I head into WvW and farm it since there are often very few players then.

Yeah, I pretty much play WvW as PvE.

It used to bother me when an opposing player killed me, but now I just view it as a hassle, having to find another guard to kill or monument to claim. And I have even managed to kill another player or two — but they were probably PvE scrubs like me.

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Posted by: OriOri.8724

OriOri.8724

I don’t like the way we acquire GoB now because I think its a failed attempt at getting people to engage in WvW for legendaries.

Its a hamfisted way to force WvW “participation”, even though you don’t even really have to participate to get it. I mean technically, if you were extremely patient, you don’t even have to ever enter WvW to obtain your GoB currently, just wait for the Spend 25 badges of honor daily, and spend them at the GH then use the reward track potion. Yes, it will take forever, but its doable. If you do do WvW, then you could just cap ruins all day every day and still not truly participate in WvW at all. So this implementation fails in the aspect of getting people to actually participate in WvW.

Secondly, Anet actually went out of their way to make sure we wouldn’t know when the vendors were being removed. The only mention of it was buried in the largest patch notes of 2016 (over 20,000 words long), and it didn’t even give a date. All it said was “when reward tracks leave beta”. Yet we were never told when reward tracks were going to leave beta. We just had to wait until they were, and then login to find out the vendor was removed.

So combine the fact that this change doesn’t actually force you to participate in WvW, it annoys everyone (annoys PvErs who don’t want to do WvW, annoys WvW players who are upset about PvE players taking up spots in the borderlands just capping ruins all day), and Anet actually went out of their way to not mention when it was going live and there is everything to dislike about it, and nothing to actually like about the change.

Still, they are adamant about not changing it back, so nothing we can do.

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Posted by: Endless Soul.5178

Endless Soul.5178

I’m a PvE player myself, to the point if I’m in WvW and I see an opposing player I’ll start trembling and I’ll waypoint out. That said, EotM isn’t that bad. Get in a zerg and kill doors for a while. Also, you can do WvW dailies like kill a veteran mob or stand in a Monument circle to claim it.

As a PvE only player myself, whose medical condition leaves my hands trembling under high stress/anxiety/strong emotions, I dreaded World vs. World, and was pretty upset when they changed the requirements for getting the Gift of Battle.

However, I managed to complete the reward track in Edge of the Mists by taking boosters, following a zerg, and even getting some help from understanding guildmates.

Thank alchemy that’s over with. Thanks for that unnecessary stress Anet.

Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.

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Posted by: Thorfinnr Sleggja.1209

Thorfinnr Sleggja.1209

I am also a 90% PvE Player.

My best advice is to check out and see if your home world server has a website, and check to see if the server or any friendly Guilds do any special WvW events or “Theme Nights”.

I did this, and found a lot of people who just want to have some fun playing WvW. We host a weekly Theme Night on Thursdays(Asuran Army(all asuras), Traps, Turrets, and Drones, Heavy Hitters, Necro Night, Naked Zerg!, etc) and average 12-15 (sometimes lots more, sometimes we’re lucky to have 10) people in a small group to run around, do dailies, and then just generally clean up our BL of hop to places where other commanders are asking for help.

We play for about 2 hours on those nights. And I can say it took about 3-4 of those nights an I had my GoB.

There are good people out there, and if you find the right ones, they will make getting the GoB enjoyable, and also may make it worth-while to hop into WvW once in a while just to catch up with new/old friends for a bit.

Good luck! (If you happen to be on Henge of Denravi(HoD) or a linked server, then Theme Night Thursdays are a great option for you! Just let me know and I will share some contact info with you. )

I do because I can
I can because I want to
I want to because you said I couldn’t

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Posted by: Rauderi.8706

Rauderi.8706

The most irritating thing about the Gift of Battle is that it can’t be bought in the same way that the PvP Gift can. I’d happily snap up tokens off the trading post to make one, but that’s not available. Rather, there’s a second WvW component that uses those tokens, instead of the Gift.

And the reward track is a horrible idea. Instead of simply earning and saving my tokens, I’m required to do incredibly boring rounds of Walk v Walk in EotM. And that reward track meter crawls.

Many alts; handle it!
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632

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Posted by: Elothar.4382

Elothar.4382

I’m also dedicated PVE. Don’t enjoy PvP or WvW. But, on balance, I’m okay with the system as is. Yeah, I have to cinch it up and jump in but, I stick with EOTM. I look for a zerg with a good commander. I usually luck out maybe three days out of five. If nothing’s going on, I bail and come back another day. When I find a good group, I stick with them, pay attention to chat, and do what the commander says. It tends to work out okay. I get a lot of Karma, some other good loot (including one each ascended weapon and armor chest).

And, with Bifrost needing the tokens from Arah, I frankly find it easier to do the WvW rewards track than find a civilized PUG for the dungeon runs.

So, am not crazy about WvW but, given the importance that I placed on getting my legendary done, I’m personally okay with it.

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

Regardless of ANet’s motivations, as OriOri says, there’s virtually no chance that they are going to change things any time soon.

So the alternatives are:

  • Sell off your mats and grind more gold to buy the Generation 1 legendaries outright. (Alas, won’t work for any HoT legendaries.)
  • Do the Daily Big Spender whenever it comes up. That requires going to your guild hall and buying a Badge of Tribute for 30 Badges of Honor (something you get from AP chests). At 4x per month, that would take 20 months.
  • Do the nearly-no-PvP dailies as they come up. Try to do them several hours after reset, when you are less likely to encounter enemies. These are: Monument (cap a location), Land Claimer (kill one NPC), Guard Killer (kill five NPCs), Veteran (kill one of the three eligible monsters), Caravan (kill a Yak). Probably takes 8-10 weeks depending.
  • Join a zerg. Takes minimum of 6 hours and more likely 15, if you don’t know how to stay alive and maximize your track progress.
  • Join a havoc team. It’s going to be mostly Player-vs-Door or Player-vs-NPC. (You can start one up with other people who hate WvW; it’s surprisingly effective to walk around 5 strong, regardless of whether you know what you’re doing or not.) It’s possible to max a track in 6 hours this way, too, although 12+ is more realistic if you’re new to it and can’t spend more than an hour or two at a time).

tl;dr the alternatives are decent. I recommend:

  • Daily Big Spender — no WvW required, just takes a long time.
  • Other Low Risk Dailies — PvP is unlikely, if you choose the right time. Probably 8-10 weeks.
  • Join or create your havoc team. Even if you avoid fights, a small group can make a lot of reward track progress relatively quickly.

Good luck.

John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”

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Posted by: ArchonWing.9480

ArchonWing.9480

I wish you could buy the new legendaries. As it stands I have no compunction to go through tyria masteries, precursor, mystic clover stuff.

And conversely those that dislike WvW are in the same boat I assume. Note I mean dislike. There are those that main pve that are just apathetic to wvw and thus are willing to deal with it. They certainly hold my respect for that. However, I think what is missing grom this discussion is that pvers are not a single group of people.

As a WvW main I have always campaigned againt forcing people to play it. It is nit a good way of going about things and is counter-intuitive.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.

(edited by ArchonWing.9480)

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Last night I was headed for a monument to cap for the daily when I saw an “enemy” player or two closing in. I entered the colored border and turned, prepared to fight for my cap if necessary.

They stopped outside of the monument, one sitting while the other bowed. I returned the bow, capped the shrine, and went on about my business.

I kind of felt bad about dropping an array of traps while they approached, before it became clear that they did not intend to fight.

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Posted by: VaaCrow.3076

VaaCrow.3076

If you campaign for this change, throw the wvw players a bone and ask them to remove the map completion components from legendaries, as it takes a similar amount of time/effort to acquire out of our chosen game mode.

[Rise] Madness Rises Guild Leader [Kei Shade-ranger]
May our BL break all foes. Fear our babou!
Gunnars Hold Represent! <3

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Posted by: ArchonWing.9480

ArchonWing.9480

That is why I think you should be able to covert one to the other somehow.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.

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Posted by: OriOri.8724

OriOri.8724

Last night I was headed for a monument to cap for the daily when I saw an “enemy” player or two closing in. I entered the colored border and turned, prepared to fight for my cap if necessary.

They stopped outside of the monument, one sitting while the other bowed. I returned the bow, capped the shrine, and went on about my business.

I kind of felt bad about dropping an array of traps while they approached, before it became clear that they did not intend to fight.

Lol. I don’t think they can get too mad considering it is a competitive game mode, it was smart of you to prepare by throwing down traps. Still though this is exactly what I was talking about, it doesn’t actually take any true participation in WvW to earn the GoB.

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Posted by: Sartharina.3542

Sartharina.3542

Legendary weapons always had WvW participation in mind. Y’all got too used to a not-brief-enough period after the removal of the mists for Map Completion and addition of Badges of Honor to Achievement Chests when you could make legendaries without putting in the proper effort into WvW.

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Posted by: zealex.9410

zealex.9410

ehh the rewardtracks in wvw suck so bad

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Posted by: Dawdler.8521

Dawdler.8521

Ah kitten I dont have enough hands to facepalm this topic again.

Gift of battle is not even 0.1% of the work on a legendary. Buff up and run in EB zergs and you have it in a couple of hours.

I am a 90% WvW player and I got 3 legendaries – including Hope that kittening required me to do the entire kittening PvE of GW2. Do you think I enjoyed spending months farming and getting masteries? kitten no. It was tedious as kitten. Gift of battle is nothing. Literally nothing.

Complaining about it is as logical as complaining that you’re getting 2g for free every day.

(edited by Dawdler.8521)

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Do you think I enjoyed spending months farming and getting masteries? kitten no. It was tedious as kitten.

Do you think that, “tedious as kitten,” is what our paid entertainment should provide?

Facepalm indeed.

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Posted by: Lady Deedra.3126

Lady Deedra.3126

You said you havent made one in a while. Which means you have made one before? So at some point you have had to do wvw for either map completion when it was required or for badges unless you just bougth them with tyhe badges from AP chests. The change isn’t new. It was also advertised. I have made every legendary in game at least once. Some 4 or 5 times. I have had to do the PVE stuff just as much as the next guy. You want the legendary but dont want to do the work. I think that is ludicrous. I don’t think they should change anything. I actually think legendaries are entirely too easy to get. I can completely map HOT maps in a few hours and pretty buy everything for any of those legendaries. HMS Divinity took me less than 10 minutes to make. Eureka took me about 8 minutes. Nothing felt legendary about that. If you want the legendary then you need to be willing to put the work in.

Skjold Pjod
I am “That” guy you have all heard about.
1,073 precursors forged and counting.

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Posted by: Tanner Blackfeather.6509

Tanner Blackfeather.6509

No, the new legendaries did not take you 8-10 minutes to make, you’d just spent the time they take beforehand.

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Posted by: Sister Saxifrage.7361

Sister Saxifrage.7361

Nothing you do for a legendary is by force, because legendaries are optional, and are designed from the ground up to be “extra” – time and wealth sinks for those who need a huge challenge to stay engaged and occupied. I think it’s okay for them to require a comprehensive “tour” of the game. Overt PvP can already be sidestepped by buying shards; WvW can be as PvP-intense or avoidant as you want.

I’ve completed several WvW reward tracks, including GoB in case I ever want to try for a legendary, doing exactly two things: faffing around with my guildies knocking over towers and camps in the BL, and faffing around in zerg trains in EotM. Sometimes our zerg runs afoul of another zerg; whoever has the bigger zerg wins. Skill doesn’t really factor into it, aside from the commander’s skill in deciding whether to engage, and guiding the zerg away if they decide not to.

An aside for those with anxiety: it may interest you to know the opposing players can’t see your name, just your server and WvW rank. Really dedicated WvW players make their toons as memorably garish as possible just so their opponents can recognize them and think, “Oh kitten, THIS guy.”

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Posted by: Lady Deedra.3126

Lady Deedra.3126

No, the new legendaries did not take you 8-10 minutes to make, you’d just spent the time they take beforehand.

The time beforehand was just gameplay not directed at making a legendary. So yeah they took that amount of time. Rewards for pve are just that. They just so happen to coincide with crafting materials for making the legendary.

Skjold Pjod
I am “That” guy you have all heard about.
1,073 precursors forged and counting.

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Posted by: azizul.8469

azizul.8469

it is called Legendary for a reason. not meant for people expecting it to be obtained easily if you want to craft it.

grind in game or grind real life, whichever suits you….

Cutie Phantasmer/Farinas [HAX] – CD Casual
Archeage = Farmville with PK

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Posted by: Sartharina.3542

Sartharina.3542

No, the new legendaries did not take you 8-10 minutes to make, you’d just spent the time they take beforehand.

The time beforehand was just gameplay not directed at making a legendary. So yeah they took that amount of time. Rewards for pve are just that. They just so happen to coincide with crafting materials for making the legendary.

Same could be said of the time spent in WvW that contributes to the GoB Reward Track.

The truth is – the PvE rewards needed for a legendary item are often so specialized that they need to be consciously farmed – running the necessary dungeon to get the Gift, without spending the tokens on armor or weapons. Forming and crafting the right components for the gift (Metal, Cloth, Wood, Leather), and acquiring the right T6 mats and jewels