Guild Wars 2

The Mystic Forge is probably one of the worst parts of this game since ANET is relying on players to gamble items and gold just for the possibility of getting something in return. I can’t even visualize how to get my legendary precursor without “gambling” and throwing exotics and gold away without getting crap items in return. You once again put the players through this for the Halloween items. Why? The ONLY way that this is acceptable is to post the odds of what you will get for what you put in the forge. If Las Vegas has to post odds then you should as well. Otherwise the game is left to the rich in the game that feed on the poor. I am not paying 230 Gold for that item but ANET seems to be fine with that.

When GW2 devs said in their manifesto that GW2 is al about having ‘fun’ and their aim getting rid of road blocks and nuisances of old game designs they somehow forgot to add ‘RNG’ and ‘LFG spam’ to their list.

The game is fun but you are correct about forgetting the most basic of features. The WVW group feature is a prime example. There is none.

Actually if I had known how much they want you to rely upon the mystic forge, I probably never would have bought the game. I really hate dealing with rng sink’s. Currently just too many disappointment’s for me to enjoy the game at this time. Who know’s maybe in a few month’s or so it’ll change for the better.

zippo burntfur.9307:

Actually if I had known how much they want you to rely upon the mystic forge, I probably never would have bought the game.

QFT.
The Mystic Forge and Anet’s ridiculous pushing of it have pretty much sapped any desire I ever had to play this game. The majority of recipes require extensive amounts of rare materials. These rare materials hardly ever drop from specific enemies in specific locations, making them very difficult to farm; and that’s not even counting the automatic anti-farming diminishing returns this game has. Sure, there are mystic forge recipes you can use to craft, say, lodestones from other materials. The problem with that is that those other materials are also rare and difficult to farm, and then have to be combined with items that can only be obtained from an NPC for a fixed price.

Ultimately you’re better off just slapping on some magic find gear, going to Orr, and following the giant zerg while tagging everything in sight in the hopes of getting drops good enough to make some gold, and then just buy the materials you need off the trade post. Good luck with that, by the way, as the vast majority of loot you will ever see drop will be useless vendor trash.

When you finally do obtain all of the rare materials needed for a non-legendary skin, there’s still the matter of those fixed-price NPC-sold items. Grind yourself a bit more gold, pop everything into the Mystic Forge, and congratulations. You’ve got a single skin for a single item for a single character. What’s that? Not the stats you were hoping for? Well, time to grind some more gold for a couple of transmutation stones.

The big problem with all of this is that, the entire time that you’re doing this, you’re ignoring dungeons, jumping puzzles, world bosses, the majority of events, every single chest that ever was, etc. The rewards for all of these things are so terribly, terribly underwhelming, and the loot that drops is so universally crappy, that you are better off sitting in Orr tagging as many things as humanly possible to vendor every drop that fills your bags.

This ridiculous system of making valuable rewards available only through the Mystic Forge is not fun or enjoyable because it does not reward gameplay. It rewards botting, buying gold, and mindless grinding at the expense of everything else this game has to offer.

Ive done very very extensive testing on this mystic forge thingy…. lets say i have run through over 2000 gold worth of items and time and time again $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I have to say that it is not completely random, it cannot be from my own extensive observations. There is a random element to it but it goes much much much deeper then just a “RNG” this i gurantee!!

Someone is going to come in this post and say, “You don’t HAVE to use the forge!” lol :P

But more seriously, there’s some things that are fun to gamble on like putting dyes in and hoping you can get better one or something like that. Other things, like what Zippo said “Actually if I had known how much they want you to rely upon the mystic forge, I probably never would have bought the game.” Now, that’s no fun.

What exactly do you rely upon the mystic forge for?

A legendary, yeah sure, but what else? That’s not compulsory after all, it’s just for bling.

I don’t use it much at all and I’m doing just fine.

For some people, bling IS compulsory.

I have been playing since launch, and I am yet to even open the interface for the Mystic Forge. Thus far I had no need for it.

I know the odds are against me when using it, so at the moment I am better off just selling my rares for a fixed few silver than risking a loss with the Mystic Forge. And I do need them silvers.

Considering that “bling” is literally the only thing to work towards, the only tangible goal, it is quite important.

If there was absolutely no carrot what would you be doing as far as PvE goes? Imma do some dungeons or events purely for the FUN of it, great I’m sure it’s fun the first 2 or 3 times, then what? Karma? Gold? What use is that if there’s no carrot to spend it on?

On Topic : I’m not a fan of RNG myself, and I’m actually incredibly surprised Anet put so much in the game. The thing I hate more about the Mystic Forge is how many secret recipes there are, and it’s a pain to find all the information of what I can or even WANT to make.

I really wish they removed the RNG elements from Legendaries and actually made it a skill-based requirement or something.

I would rather use the forge than use some mmo models of upgrading weapons and armor where each successive upgrade has a chance to break your armor/weap :/

The Mystic Forge is disenchanting and disheartening. Takes the wind out of your sails and the gold out of your bank. But because this game is based solely, at lvl 80, on pvp/wvw, farming, and on skins, the MF does bring some heart-rate increasing fun- that is until the results of your forging come in.
There is, simply put, entirely too much emphasis on removing gold from the economy to create real money transactions via gem buying, for this game to separate itself. There is no real progression to participate in, simply repetitive tasks that become mind-numbing. I’ve logged a ton of hours, and for the first time since purchase haven’t played in a few days. The mystic forge took over half of my gold, at my own fault, and now I don’t feel like re-farming to regain the gold, and I’m not much for PvP/WvW, so where does that leave me? Playing a different game, that’s where.

Personally I loathe the Mystic Forge, not only because of the absurd and anti-fun precursor RNG constantly-moving-goal-post type grind, but because all the cool items that, in other games, might be had from actually playing the game you instead get to grind for gold and go look up some recipe on a wiki.

That’s not fun.

I want to go, kick in the doors of monsters, kill them and take their (cool) loot. That is a hallmark of RPGs (MMO or otherwise) and in GW2 it’s nowhere to be found, instead having been replaced by endless grinding for trash loot and looking up weapon recipes on the wiki.

GW2 has some of the worst loot that I’ve ever seen in any RPG, and I have about 23 years experience playing them.

GW2’s loot system and the Mystic Forge method of making items makes me feel like a Garbage Collector, not a Hero of Tyria.