First I’d like to say that I really enjoy GW2. I haven’t played as long as many of you, but in the 600 hours or so that I have spent in game (crazy that 600 is considered low, huh?) I can honestly say most of it has been dedicated to acquiring a precursor weapon (specifically dusk), either directly (mystic forge) or indirectly (pray to overcome insane odds and get one from the boss trains in Frostgorge Sound, Queensdale, or farming events across 3 servers, dumping money and a lot of time on the trade broker, and lastly even farming for black lion keys via the human commoner story line farm).
I didn’t start playing GW2 for this kind of play style. I’ll gladly admit that nobody is forcing me to do anything in game, and how I spend my time is up to me. That being said, I think we all can safely agree that GW2 is a game and naturally winning is a part of that. Not winning as in team 1 beats team 2 necessarily, but acquiring the best gear in the game can be seen as winning. To me it’s not about hanging around in LA with a bunch of shiny gear to flaunt my accomplishments, nor is it related to some superiority (look what I have and you don’t) complex. Getting the best in GW2 is like beating the final boss in a single player game in a way. It’s achieving something.
But the amount of time, energy, and gold one potentially has to invest in getting just a chance at a precursor is so discouraging that it’s made me forget why I even play in the first place. It’s quite literally become the entire game to me and I’m really starting to detest it.
These so-called Legendary Weapons are nothing more than Luck and Chance Weapons. What is so “legendary” about a player having to drop all of his gold success into a roulette table (a la Mystic Forge) for just a chance at the item he/she needs? I have felt defeated in this game so many times because of this. It has not been fun and honestly at this point even if I do get a precursor weapon from the forge, I doubt I’ll even be all that happy.
Some little sword icon popping up on the right side of my monitor saying “insert precursor weapon title here” while I spend my accomplishments on gambling is how I am supposed to succeed in getting this “legendary weapon”?
Or perhaps I can do the boss/event trains and port around all over the maps and multiple servers not caring what I see, not caring about the fight I’m in with whatever champ or dragon, but only the box after, and that little sword icon popping up with “dusk” next to it. Or not even that, maybe just an item worth 40 silver so I can save up and buy a prec directly from the broker for 800+ gold A price that is certainly going to rise in the future as it has all along. Or I can gamble yet again with the forge and try not to pull my hair out seeing another Carrion Greatsword or Pearl Greatsword. There’s nothing “legendary” about doing that. What sense of accomplishment am I supposed to have when playing like that?
Undoubtedly some of you will respond (or think as much) to this posting with an attitude of “it’s your choice, nobody is making you go for a legendary, you can get by with what you have, and if you don’t see the scenery along the way it’s because you’re not looking… etc. etc…” And you would not be wrong in the least.
But I know there are A LOT of players who are doing the exact same thing as me (look up the how to make gold videos on youtube, and the amount of views they have. The amount of X weapons into forge 0 precursor vids there are). We are not having fun with this current system. It’s discouraging and disappointing. It’s anti-fun. It’s working hard for a gamble.
If the marketers at Arena Net think that a player like me is going to see this situation and drop $$$ to pay for what I am trying to get, they are dead wrong. Why would I spend money on something that A ) is a complete gamble with virtual items, and more importantly B ) something I am not having fun with.
I know I’m not offering a solution in this post. There are many out there already that I won’t get into. All I can hope is that sometime Arena Net will introduce a realistic path to legendary weapons that appeals to both the hardcore players, and casuals alike, without the needless and disappointing amount of RNG involved. It’s a tall order, but I believe is certainly possible.