Guild Wars 2

Allow me to preface this by defining what I mean with grinding:

Grinding is repeating the same activity over and over again, not because you enjoy doing it but because the rewards bring you closer to whatever goal you’ve set for yourself. Ergo, the goal/reward is what drives you, not the activity itself.

Now I’ve played my fair share of MMOs ranging from DAOC over WoW to WAR, SWTOR and finally Guild Wars 2. All had their merits and all had their flaws.

I’ve never been drawn into the idea of having multiple characters so I tend to be very focused on endgame in every MMO I play.

And yet in the 3 months I have played Guild Wars 2, I think I have grinded more than I have every grinded in any of the aforementioned games.

I’m not hating it or anything, but for a game that sold itself on the idea of being grindless…that’s a pretty hefty fault.

I don’t grind at all in GW2.

I do WvW when I fancy it, sPVP when I fancy it, or just run around in Orr or do a dungeon by joining a pug from LA, when I fancy it.

I have never once even been asked about my gear tbh. Not like people can even tell, since they can’t inspect me.

My gear is all exotics on 2 chars. Multiple sets. I don’t have fancy skins, but working towards Arah corrupted orrian skins and CoF one, using the Orr karma ones otherwise.

If you call just playing the game “grinding”, that’s your problem.

Do what you want.

It’s always confused me why MMO makers always say a game will remove grind.

Most video games require grind, be it for the story, new items or whatever. I hated Alpha Protocol’s combat but my goal was to see how the story ended so I ground it out. Bethesda’s games are just as guilty when you boil it down.

Grind? In Guild Wars 2? Surely you jest.

It is an MMO … I expect to have to grind to get things I want. However, the DR and FARMCODE system I resent with every fiber of my being. Dangle the carrot for those willing to work for it then penalize them when they do. Half the time I get 7 airbags (no drop) out of 10 mobs. Don’t say switch monsters please since we are FORCED to grind certain things for certain drops … lodestones anyone?

If this game is to survive … THEY CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS.

Question what is the goal you’re trying to reach, Cause I am having the opposite experiance. Goal take a long time to reach but can be achieved withotu any grind what so ever!

Example I am currently crafting a Corrupted Staff. Takes 30 corrupted lodestones, the drop rate is attrocious so if one had to farm the components directly and do nothing else it will feel grindy but since you can buy them off TP I just play the game, explore stuff, do the occational dungeon, do some WvW and occationally farm a little!

so far 1 I had, also I got 5 from farming and have amassed enough money to buy the rest (though didnt do it yet, want to get another 5g before spending all I have)

if you want to know what grind is go and play kal-online

guild wars grind is only there if you want something special, you can get to 80 and do the story and not grind once, that’s the grindless part.

Galen Grey.4709:

Question what is the goal you’re trying to reach, Cause I am having the opposite experiance. Goal take a long time to reach but can be achieved withotu any grind what so ever!

Example I am currently crafting a Corrupted Staff. Takes 30 corrupted lodestones, the drop rate is attrocious so if one had to farm the components directly and do nothing else it will feel grindy but since you can buy them off TP I just play the game, explore stuff, do the occational dungeon, do some WvW and occationally farm a little!

so far 1 I had, also I got 5 from farming and have amassed enough money to buy the rest (though didnt do it yet, want to get another 5g before spending all I have)

Some of the legendary weapons require 100 lodestones that cost 2+ gold each (not counting the 1000 gold in other mats). If you are content to casually farm your goal over the span of 10 years then more power to you … some of us don’t have that kind of patience. Legendary doesn’t happen without sheer force of will or a credit card on fire.

For those about to say you don’t have to get a legendary weapon … feel free to show me that new and exciting end game. MMOs are about getting gear and those trying to get a legendary are the ones actually falling into the MMO target audience. Claw of Jormag looks cool but can you honestly say you would take the time to kill it without a chance of reward?

Again, grind is to be expected … being slammed with DR and Farmcode is just ridiculous. My 2 copper your mileage will no doubt vary.

I feel you man. However since the introduction of Jugs of Karma i have to say that grinding in Orr (repeating the same DE chain over and over again) for karma has been reduced.
However, for weapons the require hundreds of Lodestones you have either 2 ways to get them – 1. farm them yourself getting 1 lodestones an hour if you’re lucky, 2. Buy them off the TP for 50s-2g each. I’m sorry but either way, getting the lodestones or 200+ gold – that’s grinding.

I never grinded. I never spent more than an hour at a time in Orr, never did a dungeon more than 1-2 times in a row. The only thing I spent hours at a time on was WvW but that was because it is easy to lose track of time playing that. After 690 hours of play I got myself the legendary pistol (pissed of that if i had waited a week i could have saved 60 gold on the precursor).

I have never really stuck with a MMORPG before gw2. I am not the type of player who likes grinding at all, but GW has so many options to get to the same goal that you dont need to grind.

For people complaining about lodestones… who says you have to grind all 100 of them, or buy all 100 of them. You need to set yourself much smaller goals. Go run a dungeon path and get a core or lodestone, go farm some mobs for 30 minutes, go get some orich ore and sell with the loot from earlier and use the profit to buy a lodestone or 2. Before you know it you have a few lodestones and you never spent more than 30-45 minutes doing the same thing over and over.

Dee Jay.2460:

Allow me to preface this by defining what I mean with grinding:

Grinding is repeating the same activity over and over again, not because you enjoy doing it but because the rewards bring you closer to whatever goal you’ve set for yourself. Ergo, the goal/reward is what drives you, not the activity itself.

Now I’ve played my fair share of MMOs ranging from DAOC over WoW to WAR, SWTOR and finally Guild Wars 2. All had their merits and all had their flaws.

I’ve never been drawn into the idea of having multiple characters so I tend to be very focused on endgame in every MMO I play.

And yet in the 3 months I have played Guild Wars 2, I think I have grinded more than I have every grinded in any of the aforementioned games.

I’m not hating it or anything, but for a game that sold itself on the idea of being grindless…that’s a pretty hefty fault.

if you feel like you are grinding you aren’t having fun. take a break, then try again.

I mine orichalcum (~20 minutes) then WvW and more or less 1 dungeon a day (if i’m in the mood).
When roaming i pick up everything and sell it on tp.
This is not grinding because i do it not for the goal but for the activity itself.
So, no. in my opinion gw2 is not the most grindy game ever.

Take any triple A MMO, there is no grinding compared to GW2, this game has to be the grindiest game I have ever played. Even with the ability to buy of the TP you had to grind for that gold to buy those ingredients.

Even the new gear you have to grind the dungeon to obtain the gear.

Cod Eye.1632:

Take any triple A MMO, there is no grinding compared to GW2, this game has to be the grindiest game I have ever played. Even with the ability to buy of the TP you had to grind for that gold to buy those ingredients.

Even the new gear you have to grind the dungeon to obtain the gear.

if you feel like your grinding, you arent having fun. take some time off. the game will be here when you come back. the pve in this game isn’t competitive. you don’t need this new gear. games are meant to be fun. have fun enough times and you get some nice rewards on-top of the rewards you earned whle having fun. take a deep breath, relax, remember that games are fun. if you feel like you are grinding, maybe it’s time to take a break. you already own the game, it will still be here when you are ready to have fun again.

Dee Jay.2460:

Grinding is repeating the same activity over and over again, not because you enjoy doing it but because the rewards bring you closer to whatever goal you’ve set for yourself….Now I’ve played my fair share of MMOs ranging from DAOC over WoW to WAR, SWTOR and finally Guild Wars 2.

I have played a lot of the same games, DAoC, WAR, tried SWTOR and if you didnt grind in those game you never got to endgame. Those 3 games had/has a serious gear grind, more then any other game i have ever played(inc GW2) because if you want to compete you had to grind for ingame days if not month on end. Compete doesnt mean winning, it means that you didnt get killed in the first min of combat.

Lets just take WAR as an example: unless you got a full high rr(70+) wb to carry you, it took 70-100 ingame days(yes thats between 1680 – 2400 hours of playing time) to get to top lvl (rr80). Then they made the rr weapons, even more silly grind, then the rr81-100 rr ranks and new gear. In my casual guild we had multiple ppl with one character that had log over 100 ingame days.

Yes you have to grind if you want SPECIAL OPTIONAL items.

You don’t need to grind in order to do dungeons
You don’t need to grind in order to do events
You don’t need to grind in order to do PvP

Reonhato.5914:

I never grinded. I never spent more than an hour at a time in Orr, never did a dungeon more than 1-2 times in a row. The only thing I spent hours at a time on was WvW but that was because it is easy to lose track of time playing that. After 690 hours of play I got myself the legendary pistol (pissed of that if i had waited a week i could have saved 60 gold on the precursor).

I have never really stuck with a MMORPG before gw2. I am not the type of player who likes grinding at all, but GW has so many options to get to the same goal that you dont need to grind.

For people complaining about lodestones… who says you have to grind all 100 of them, or buy all 100 of them. You need to set yourself much smaller goals. Go run a dungeon path and get a core or lodestone, go farm some mobs for 30 minutes, go get some orich ore and sell with the loot from earlier and use the profit to buy a lodestone or 2. Before you know it you have a few lodestones and you never spent more than 30-45 minutes doing the same thing over and over.

You do know you have to pay that credit card bill eventually right? Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I have over 1,100 hours played and am only about 2/3 of the way to my Legendary. You managed to achieve the same result in 500 fewer hours and a lot of that in WvW … I detect bullkitten or a credit card on fire.

1100 hours played and you havnt got a legendary?!?

If you played the TP in the beginning of the game/at launch, sell mats that you aint using, sold particular jewelry in the beginning of the game you could pretty easy get a few 100 gold in less then 200 hours played. A guy from my guild got 400ish gold in the 2 month of the game by just playing the TP, then he grinding Orr like a boss for a few weeks and then he bought his legendary staff. i dont think he broke 700 played hours.

I am grinding FoTM for the sake of keeping up with everyone elses’s level progression, so that I have people to run the dungeon with and have fun. While I completely and whole-heartedly disagree with ascended gear at the moment, I don’t care about it. Until I hit that wall where I need it, I am running this to keep up.

Konfuzfanten.6503:

1100 hours played and you havnt got a legendary?!?

If you played the TP in the beginning of the game/at launch, sell mats that you aint using, sold particular jewelry in the beginning of the game you could pretty easy get a few 100 gold in less then 200 hours played. A guy from my guild got 400ish gold in the 2 month of the game by just playing the TP, then he grinding Orr like a boss for a few weeks and then he bought his legendary staff. i dont think he broke 700 played hours.

That’s all good and well, but not everyone likes to play with tp at all.

leprekan.7248:

Galen Grey.4709:

Question what is the goal you’re trying to reach, Cause I am having the opposite experiance. Goal take a long time to reach but can be achieved withotu any grind what so ever!

Example I am currently crafting a Corrupted Staff. Takes 30 corrupted lodestones, the drop rate is attrocious so if one had to farm the components directly and do nothing else it will feel grindy but since you can buy them off TP I just play the game, explore stuff, do the occational dungeon, do some WvW and occationally farm a little!

so far 1 I had, also I got 5 from farming and have amassed enough money to buy the rest (though didnt do it yet, want to get another 5g before spending all I have)

Some of the legendary weapons require 100 lodestones that cost 2+ gold each (not counting the 1000 gold in other mats). If you are content to casually farm your goal over the span of 10 years then more power to you … some of us don’t have that kind of patience. Legendary doesn’t happen without sheer force of will or a credit card on fire.

For those about to say you don’t have to get a legendary weapon … feel free to show me that new and exciting end game. MMOs are about getting gear and those trying to get a legendary are the ones actually falling into the MMO target audience. Claw of Jormag looks cool but can you honestly say you would take the time to kill it without a chance of reward?

Again, grind is to be expected … being slammed with DR and Farmcode is just ridiculous. My 2 copper your mileage will no doubt vary.

10 years is an exageration took me less then a month to get the 30 lodestones of course the lodestones are just a fraction of what you need to achieve to craft a legendary but like I said I got the bulk of the lodestones while doing other content. I also did gathering, dungeons daily achievements, monthly achievements etc.. That will also account for a good amount of materials, a good amount of karma .. with boosters about 400k – 500k. I cant say for sure but I think it would take me somewhere around 8m – a year to casually get all thats required for a legendary!

I will not tell you that you don’t need a legendary because well its good to have something to work towards without a doubt, you need some goal in any case but what I will tell you is you dont need a legendary tomorrow! does it matter that it might take you 1 year to get it? you’ll not be less effective, you will not be cut out of any content. There is really not rush, its a lot better to enjoy the game and take a long time to get your legendary then grind, dislike every second and get the legendary in a fraction of the time! what are you going to do once you get the legendary anyway? work towards another and once again hate every second of it?

I love jumping puzzles though not particulary good at them. Spend 3 days doing the new one in southern cove. That didnt get me closer to my corrupted staff for sure And I will spend another few days trying it again cause they’re just fun! Then again corrupted staff will not make me any more powerful and I am getting it so I enjoy the look of my character in the end! its all about having fun! my recommendation is dont turn the game in a job! play to have fun and make rewards such as legendaries as just a goal you plan to work towards while playing in a way you enjoy nothing more!

Valtameri.2075:

That’s all good and well, but not everyone likes to play with tp at all.

Thats fair enough, but then you are limiting your options aka speed of getting the legendary you want.

Konfuzfanten.6503:

1100 hours played and you havnt got a legendary?!?

If you played the TP in the beginning of the game/at launch, sell mats that you aint using, sold particular jewelry in the beginning of the game you could pretty easy get a few 100 gold in less then 200 hours played. A guy from my guild got 400ish gold in the 2 month of the game by just playing the TP, then he grinding Orr like a boss for a few weeks and then he bought his legendary staff. i dont think he broke 700 played hours.

LOL. Check his statements and you will see a different story unfold. I am a preorder as well and was here from headstart forward. The first 200 hours of the game gold was priceless and gems worthless (I remember when 1 gold bought 399 gems). Exotic drops sold for 50ish to 70ish silver. If he made a “few hundred” in under 200 hours he was either the luckiest person on the planet or one of the many that exploited the forge at the start.

700 hours played isn’t that many for a new MMO. If his results were typical there would be A LOT of Legendary weapons around. I have seen TWO on Yak’s bend.

I never said he didnt exploited the marked/options he had. Ohh and you could make loads of gold on the TP the 1-2 month or so. waaaaay more then you can make today.

And i didnt say that he was your typical guy, just that it is certainly possible to get a legendary within 600-700 hours played without using gems.

MMOs are based around character progression. I’ve yet to see an MMO where improving your character didn’t require a grind. The grind is why you log in. Good grinds don’t make you feel like it’s a grind – but it’s a grind none the less.

I’ve seen worse in Lineage 2, OP belive me if you haven’t play this game you can’t possibly even uderstand what word “grind” cant truly mean. Still, that doesn’t mean GW2 is ok, no, it could be better, where is that statement about “we don’t make grindy games” and all about skins and looks. By the way to Infuse your armor in GW1 you have to TALK to npc who will do that for free

Op disagree with you.

Before the 11/15 patch, this game never felt like a grind to me. I just did what I wanted to because I was having fun. Grind for me is when I have no choice. I must do it or else I will not be able to a) do the end game content, b) get the new better gear, c) play with my guildmates who are demanding I do it, d) and so on.

Until this patch, there was nothing that forced me to grind in this game. The legendary weapons were only different based on looks and effect. They did not give you a stat advantage. So if you decided to pursue them using a grind approach, that was your choice. No one forced you to go after them.

There were even Exotics with better looks that took more effort to get. Again, they had same stats as the “easy to craft” Exotics. So if you choose to “grind” for them, it was your choice.

Before their complete overhaul of their game design, Arenanet said multiple times that they do not include “forced” grind in their games. Mike O’Brien made it clear that if you go after a “hard to get” item the only distinction of that item should be “cosmetic.” It should “not” be something that you are forced to get because you will fall behind in the game or can’t do certain content.

The OP is right. It’s a grind fest. Sure you can do a lot…but you can’t do the content and stuff that the maxed players in your guild can do and it takes you a long time to get there. A long time of soloing….PvE anyways…

Strange since this game is less grindy than others I played and I played the some of the same games as you (WoW is very grindy especially at end game), I guess it is a matter of opinion then.