Guild Wars 2

I love the addition of the Collection achievements – for players like me, they do make me want to do more content to fill them out. There are some awesome rewards to hunt after in the collections – However, I think some of the collections could use more “Proof”-based reward. The Spirit Crafter backpack and the Acolyte of Dwayna title are examples of what I am looking for, and those collections are awesome because of that – you can spend a lot of time and/or money to achieve those and show it off.

Achievements like Ambrite Weapon Collector and all of the Black Lion collections could use similar incentives added on – don’t get me wrong, the Ascended Armor chest for the former and pile of tickets for the latter are great, but why not add an “Archaeologist” title or an Ambrite Backpack skin reward to the Ambrite Weapon Collection? If I spend that much time farming geodes in Dry Top, I just feel like it would be nice to be able to display something unique that shows off the effort.

I can see not doing it for Black Lion achievements, though – it might drive the prices of those even higher and push it more out of reach of 99% of players. What are your thoughts?

That would be nice. But still the reward is good. What is really bad are collection like :

Spirit Crafter : These weapons have a curent value of 3 000 gold on the TP right now. And the reward is a exotic back item with the same skins as one of the crafting exotic bag item, just semi-transparent with a blue glow. This is ridiculous. At that price, it should be a kitten unique skin on a ascended back item. Not an ugly exotic back item.

Treasure Hunter : The concept is super nice. Go around the world with some scavenger hunt to complete the collection that give you a chest in your home instance that you can open everyday. But some of the item you need are super rare and the top 4 costly items are 80 gold, 275 gold, 400 gold and 500 gold. That’s a huge amount of gold that you buy them or decide to not sell them. Worst, is that these items are worth nothing by themselves. These 4 items are all exotic trinkets. Ok, but a chest that you can open everyday in your home instance seem super cool. But from loots reseach available it seem like this chest is like any other chest in the world. It give only kitten. Bloodlust dust, empyreal fragment, masterwork gear, bag of jewel, bag of runes, bag of sigil, dragonite ore, if you are lucky you get rare gear or cores. This is insane. Even if you get the best items (that we know so far) everyday from that chest. It would take more than 4-5 years to get your money back. Remember, most of the items in that collection don’t have any use outside the collection.

Trash Collector : At least it was nice to complete. But really. The reward for completing it is a big bag of trash. Literally. It was a good smash on the check after a couples of hours running around tyria collection trash.

Style Guide : It’s about 300 gold of stuff and the reward is a ascended accessories. It’s nice if you already crafted Koss on Koss since it’s the most costly item in the collection. But, who would craft koss on koss now when so many ways of getting cheaper ascended back items exist?

Koutalophile : The collection items is nice. The most expensive spoon have 5 differents ways to get it, so you can use the ways that you like the most. And 3 spoons are account drop in fractal, tequalt and WvW. This can be fun to go after even if the rng could be terribly frustrating. The problem is the reward. 3 levels, 5 level 20 masterwork items and a exotic ring. Are you kitten kidding me? All of these spoons are useless anyway except for the collection, so why would i spend any currency to get the Imperial Chef Yileng’s spoon (a ascended accessory with Condition, toughness, Precision and healing power as stats) just to get that really bad rewards.

I love collection. But some of them are just stupid.

Since when did collections become short term goals rather than long term goals you get by just playing the game?

Ayrilana.1396:

Since when did collections become short term goals rather than long term goals you get by just playing the game?

When they required things that you wouldn’t get “by just playing the game” and would have to intentionally go out of your way to acquire (see: Koss on Koss, spoons).

I’d prefer equipment with unique skins to titles, personally. I would be absolutely thrilled with some sort of Amber-themed back item for completing the Ambrite weapon collection, for instance. But yah, a little extra something to display would be nice.

But not for BLC collections. They already give you a number of tickets, and like you said, more incentives would only mean the price would keep going higher and higher. Its high enough as it is just to buy one or two weapons with people trying to complete the collections.

Filaha.1678:

Ayrilana.1396:

Since when did collections become short term goals rather than long term goals you get by just playing the game?

When they required things that you wouldn’t get “by just playing the game” and would have to intentionally go out of your way to acquire (see: Koss on Koss, spoons).

That’s only a handful and getting those items could easily be a long term goal.

Ayrilana.1396:

Since when did collections become short term goals rather than long term goals you get by just playing the game?

Where is it written that they are supposed to be passive-play, self-fulfilling long-term goals rather than something players actively and deliberately work towards?

Sure, I could just play the game and would eventually complete the trash collection without even trying… But the same cannot be said for the Dwayna collection. I could ‘just play the game’ for a decade and none of these would drop.

Just look at them and how time consuming many of them are.

I have completed 2 of the dungeon collections(Arah and SE) and the reward is one ascended trinket for collecting at least 1 of every piece of armor and all the weapons. The future reward for it is equally unimpressive: I get the option to spend more money on the same trinket. Really? Allowing me to buy more of this item is a reward? A lot of the so called rewards in this game are baffling.

Take Pavilion 2.0 for example: Collect a bunch of tokens and then combine that with gold to get a skin. They don’t jsut let me trade in tokens for the skin, I have to spend gold on top of it and I am supposed to feel rewarded? No thanks. Most stuff should be like Liadri and the Dwayna Collection. Not only do you get a title, but you get a reward.

I am not gonna chase the Exotic Hunter Collection track because there isn’t an actual reward. ArenaNet thinks giving us something as a karma sink(Karmic Converter) as a reward for collecting/spending hundreds of gold on exotics is good for players? It’s not good for players. It’s good for ArenaNet so they can treat our rewards as ways to flush more currency out of their game. It’s terrible for players.

I agree with a few people here who are baffled by the amount of effort required to get pitiful rewards. I think the only collection I intentionally went out of my way to get was the jar one, and only because it didn’t cost too much. As for the others? Um, no. I like achievements, but it makes no sense to spend 20000 gold on junk that rewards you with 2g or just more junk.

Don’t buy into the hype people. Don’t do it.

I think the reward for Spirit Crafter is right where the reward should be. If you like the skins or the content (I enjoy Dry Top, so I thought it would be cool to get the Ambrite Weapon Collection finished), the collection gives you an extra incentive to go all out for it. I just wish that MORE of those time consuming or expensive collections had unique rewards that show off your achievement. Some don’t like titles, others don’t like that the Spirit Crafter backpack is just a reskin – but both of those rewards are at least unique to doing the content and provide players with more long term goals to chase.

The Fractal Weapon Collection (once it is actually working) is another that could use a unique skin or title. Perhaps “Blessed by the RNG Gods”. :P

Should be a unique reward for each one. Spoon one should reward a spoon weapon, that’s just a no brainer…

Ayrilana.1396:

That’s only a handful and getting those items could easily be a long term goal.

Long term goal is ok. I love that. But long term goal for nothing is not fun. I don’t mind if the collection take me 6 months to achieve. But there is just no reason what so ever to spend several hundred gold for a pitiful reward.

DaG.5103:

I think the reward for Spirit Crafter is right where the reward should be.

Really? Its an exotic back item. They didn’t even try, its the same exact skin as one of the crafted exotic back item just with a special effect.

Thaddeus.4891:

Really? Its an exotic back item. They didn’t even try, its the same exact skin as one of the crafted exotic back item just with a special effect.

Yeah, but it’s still a unique skin to the achievement. I’m personally not a huge fan of the skin itself, but at least you cannot get that particular skin without completing the collection.

Nothing is going to appeal to everybody (as clearly this skin does not appeal to you! ), but something unique is still going to appeal to more players than something you can get through other means.

I don’t think there are problems with the rare collection rewards, hell, I’d LOVE a Karmic Converter or Enchanted chest, but the work required is appropriate for em.

Exactly… When I first heard about the Karmic Converter I was super excited to finally have a way to use my karma (Other than Obsidian Shards) and then found out it would cost me a fortune to just get my hands on it, yea… no thanks. I guess I’ll just start farming low level forge items with it…
“Yay, Linen farming”… /Sarcasm

Does no one else here do collections simply for the sake of doing them? O.o I like the collections because they’re more things I can “tick off a list”. In many cases, like skin collections, I was already collecting the skins just for the sake of having them in my collection. To me, the bonus you get for completing the collection was just that, an extra bonus; I’d have done the collection anyway even if there wasn’t an AP or other type of reward. (I’d already completed the Bandit weapon collection months before LS Part 2 came out, for example.)

I actually think it’s a GOOD thing that these collections don’t offer ridiculously good rewards. It would spike up demand for these rare items even more and probably result in even more people complaining that they’re too expensive/difficult to get, that ANet only caters to grinders and the rich etc.

Yeah, if I do a collection, it’s because I want to do it for the completion. I don’t need a silly title or other extra incentives. If it looks like a pain in the butt, I’ll skip it, not matter what the reward for completion may be. If it looks reasonable, I’ll do it.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Yeah, if I do a collection, it’s because I want to do it for the completion. I don’t need a silly title or other extra incentives. If it looks like a pain in the butt, I’ll skip it, not matter what the reward for completion may be. If it looks reasonable, I’ll do it.

If they want people to do them they should all be reasonable… It’s kind of like the WvW achievements (although actually attainable in this case) If you want people to go after them there should be a reason to do it. As of right now: it costs about 900g to get the Exotic Hunter Achievement, that’s it… Actually pretty darn easy if you think about it, and yet why do people complain because that’s neither a long term goal (Because no one is actually farming those weapons, they’re just farming the gold) or a decent reward.

It isn’t about whether the rewards are spectacular or not, people like me prefer to Min/Max our time/gold/resources into Rewards/more gold/less grind. While people like you (and more so directed at the person above you who said “I just like checking things off a list”) prefer to finish certain achievements just to finish certain achievements.
The only problem is that these collections (at least the ones that work) are really the only “Long term” content that has been introduced to the game in the last year (Legendaries at launch, WvW achievements at launch, PvP ranks at launch, Fractal levels I believe more than a year ago, etc.) but they’re long term content that only takes 10 minutes to finish if the person doing it has the resources…

I apologize I kind of went off on a rant, I wasn’t intending to do that…

Zaxares.5419:

Does no one else here do collections simply for the sake of doing them? O.o I like the collections because they’re more things I can “tick off a list”. In many cases, like skin collections, I was already collecting the skins just for the sake of having them in my collection. To me, the bonus you get for completing the collection was just that, an extra bonus; I’d have done the collection anyway even if there wasn’t an AP or other type of reward. (I’d already completed the Bandit weapon collection months before LS Part 2 came out, for example.)

I actually think it’s a GOOD thing that these collections don’t offer ridiculously good rewards. It would spike up demand for these rare items even more and probably result in even more people complaining that they’re too expensive/difficult to get, that ANet only caters to grinders and the rich etc.

Well, to clarify, I will do the collections whether or not they have something unique attached to them. :P

I definitely agree with you on collections where the items are simply purchasable on the Trading Post. Those don’t need to be more in demand than they are, and I think that’s an excellent point.

Reading what you all have said – and there are a lot of good points here – I think what I would most prefer is that collections that are gated by doing content only (not ones with items you can trade for), such as the Ambrite Weapon Collection and the Fractal Weapon Collection, have unique rewards (e.g. titles, skins). Adding those to the rewards would encourage more people to do the content rather than increasing the prices of rare drops. More people in Dry Top and looking for Fractal groups can only be a good thing.

Well, while they’re at it, I would appreciate it if I got a title for completing all the Jumping Puzzles. That would be cool.

The Black Lion Skin collection shouldn’t even be there since it requires at minimum someone willing to buy tons of keys from the gem store. Key farming isn’t what it used to be.

I could handle it being there if they took the keys off the gem store and increased the drop rate significantly so it isn’t a bought and gambled for collection.

I just pretend the Black Lion Collection tab doesn’t even exist.

Thaddeus.4891:

That would be nice. But still the reward is good. What is really bad are collection like :

Spirit Crafter : These weapons have a curent value of 3 000 gold on the TP right now. And the reward is a exotic back item with the same skins as one of the crafting exotic bag item, just semi-transparent with a blue glow. This is ridiculous. At that price, it should be a kitten unique skin on a ascended back item. Not an ugly exotic back item.

Treasure Hunter : The concept is super nice. Go around the world with some scavenger hunt to complete the collection that give you a chest in your home instance that you can open everyday. But some of the item you need are super rare and the top 4 costly items are 80 gold, 275 gold, 400 gold and 500 gold. That’s a huge amount of gold that you buy them or decide to not sell them. Worst, is that these items are worth nothing by themselves. These 4 items are all exotic trinkets. Ok, but a chest that you can open everyday in your home instance seem super cool. But from loots reseach available it seem like this chest is like any other chest in the world. It give only kitten. Bloodlust dust, empyreal fragment, masterwork gear, bag of jewel, bag of runes, bag of sigil, dragonite ore, if you are lucky you get rare gear or cores. This is insane. Even if you get the best items (that we know so far) everyday from that chest. It would take more than 4-5 years to get your money back. Remember, most of the items in that collection don’t have any use outside the collection.

Trash Collector : At least it was nice to complete. But really. The reward for completing it is a big bag of trash. Literally. It was a good smash on the check after a couples of hours running around tyria collection trash.

Style Guide : It’s about 300 gold of stuff and the reward is a ascended accessories. It’s nice if you already crafted Koss on Koss since it’s the most costly item in the collection. But, who would craft koss on koss now when so many ways of getting cheaper ascended back items exist?

Koutalophile : The collection items is nice. The most expensive spoon have 5 differents ways to get it, so you can use the ways that you like the most. And 3 spoons are account drop in fractal, tequalt and WvW. This can be fun to go after even if the rng could be terribly frustrating. The problem is the reward. 3 levels, 5 level 20 masterwork items and a exotic ring. Are you kitten kidding me? All of these spoons are useless anyway except for the collection, so why would i spend any currency to get the Imperial Chef Yileng’s spoon (a ascended accessory with Condition, toughness, Precision and healing power as stats) just to get that really bad rewards.

I love collection. But some of them are just stupid.

Spirit Crafter : Not even going to bother unless the RNG gods bless me with multiple precursor drops.

Treasure Hunter : When most of the way on this then stopped when I got to the prices of the last few items. As you said the reward just doesn’t seem worth it.

Trash Collector : For some reason I remember getting something good out of that bag . . . I was surprised.

Style Guide : This is the one that bothers me the most for some reason. Got all but the two items (the most expensive ones – Godswalk and Koss on Koss). An ascended back piece is the reward – but I would have to make an ascended back piece to get it and I already have an extra ascended back piece with no character to put it on and I can make several more if I want (blade shards + 50+ ascended leather sitting in my bank) so . . . for 200+ gold thanks but no. Same reason I couldn’t be bothered with Mawdrey.

Koutalophile : Almost started this one and stopped. Saw that it had fractals and wvw components and neither of those interest me much so went no further. If the rewards are what you say then I’ll never touch it.

Also, I can’t bring myself to care about the rewards for completing the dungeon collections – the only thing that jumps out are the ascended accessories and I don’t need more ascended accessories.

Style Guide’s reward is actually an Accessory, not a backpiece, and it’s one you can choose the stat combo on, so it’s not AS ridiculous.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wylenn%27s_Manual_of_Style