Guild Wars 2

I just received a call from my brother who used to be quite hardcore into WoW, regarding the Firefall beta this weekend. He asked me if I was joining in. What I told him was, “maybe, I have to grind for my badges of honor and karma.” He started laughing. He went, “dude weren’t you the one who used to call me out for grinding armor in WoW. And how GW2 was supposed to be oh-so different.” And that got me thinking.

I’m grinding karma, and BoH for my Bifrost. Something which I thought I would never do from the start of the introduction of legendaries (cause it involves PvP.) And when I saw the requirements I knew it would be a major grind. However, once I finished Map completion (which is something else which I thought I’d never do) and got the gift of Exploration, I told myself, why not get the gift of Mastery and try of the Bifrost. And now here I am grinding for the Gift of Mastery.

I’ve played WoW, Eve and a couple of other MMOs. But I’ve never been involved in a grind such as the grind for a Legendary in GW2. People say, that you don’t have to “it’s just a skin.” But the why did ANET come up with a special post for them. Also, ok my exotic staff has the same stats (well until the upgrade the legendaries to Ascend status.)

And then there is the actual gear grind for Ascended gear. Its similar to gear grinds in WoW. Grind the same things for higher stat equipment. It’s not just a skin anymore.

Oh well.
TL;DR off the play Firefall Beta this weekend.

Ascended gear isn’t that bad, I don’t think. In the upcoming update, you will be able to buy ascended items with the new reward systems, but they are not infused items. I’m not sure how much they will be, though. As for legendary weapons, I wouldn’t mind the grind too much if I wasn’t so worried on if I am ever going to get the precursor or not. 500g is ridiculous along with all the other stuff you have to get.

For me, the dividing line between just playing and grinding is fun – and there’s nothing I do in GW2 which I don’t find fun. If I’m bored or fed up, I just log out. The grinds I did in WoW were especially that -grinds- because it involved a lot of time spent on stuff I didn’t enjoy.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that the actual gameplay in GW2 is so much fun that I simply enjoy doing it – enjoyment in an MMO, who’d have thunk, eh ?

I think the philosophy is basically that you don’t have to grind to progress. Which is probably why there was a bit of backlash against ascended gear. In WoW, the grind to get your “best-in-slot” gear was insane. You can be decked out in exotics in this game pretty kitten quickly and without a grind, other than earning gold/karma. But you can buy the exotics off the trading-post and much of the karma gear people do for looks only. You’re not locked out of dungeons and unable to perform because the game’s best dagger in that 10-man raid hasn’t dropped in 5 months.

The grind for a Legendary is, well, Legendary. There was never anything so repetitive and devious in WoW or any other non-Asian game that I’ve played.

Even if there was some context or story that goes along with it, but no. Just grind.

Remember, their goal is to find the pain points and funnel you into the Gem store… this is one of them.

Goettel.4389:

For me, the dividing line between just playing and grinding is fun – and there’s nothing I do in GW2 which I don’t find fun. If I’m bored or fed up, I just log out. The grinds I did in WoW were especially that -grinds- because it involved a lot of time spent on stuff I didn’t enjoy.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that the actual gameplay in GW2 is so much fun that I simply enjoy doing it – enjoyment in an MMO, who’d have thunk, eh ?

And as you say, that’s you. There is very little enjoyable for me in GW2, but everything I engage in in WoW is enjoyable.

But in this case, there is no way NOT to define the Legendary acquisition as a grind – an (insanely) repetitive task to progress your character.

Fiennes.9568:

I think the philosophy is basically that you don’t have to grind to progress. Which is probably why there was a bit of backlash against ascended gear. In WoW, the grind to get your “best-in-slot” gear was insane. You can be decked out in exotics in this game pretty kitten quickly and without a grind, other than earning gold/karma. But you can buy the exotics off the trading-post and much of the karma gear people do for looks only. You’re not locked out of dungeons and unable to perform because the game’s best dagger in that 10-man raid hasn’t dropped in 5 months.

There was no grind to get best in slot gear in WoW. You simply play the content, and the gear comes to you.

So the rewards were tied into the progression where as the Legendaries here have nothing to do with content or progression, but flat out obstacles you must repeat and repeat (grind) to get over.

Zeldain.5710:

There was no grind to get best in slot gear in WoW. You simply play the content, and the gear comes to you.

Oh, but there was (I believe). Running that same 10-man raid, week after week, month after month, to get the dagger that has a % drop from the end-boss… is a grind (to some). I actually prefer farming a bunch of mobs for T6 mats, then running the dungeon over and over again.

There was a sword in WoW… I forget its name. Had nice stats and a great fire-animation. Dropped from one of the dragons in the Sunken Temple (not even a raid). It dropped, I won the roll, and all is good. My friend who was with me wanted it. She then ran that 9 times a day for 4 weeks (because it wasn’t a raid, no lock out). Never dropped again.

But even that was aesthetics. Not best in slot.

I agree there is a grind if you want to go and get a legendary. Holy cats, there is a grind. But it’s utterly unnecessary as the stats are no better than the top-level stat gear. One does it for the prestige and the looks. That’s it. Gameplay wise, you are no different from anybody else.

Why bother doing the legendary if you don’t have fun ?
If it’s too grindy for you, then just stop it there are others exotics with the same stats.

Fiennes.9568:

Zeldain.5710:

There was no grind to get best in slot gear in WoW. You simply play the content, and the gear comes to you.

Oh, but there was (I believe). Running that same 10-man raid, week after week, month after month, to get the dagger that has a % drop from the end-boss… is a grind (to some). I actually prefer farming a bunch of mobs for T6 mats, then running the dungeon over and over again.

There was a sword in WoW… I forget its name. Had nice stats and a great fire-animation. Dropped from one of the dragons in the Sunken Temple (not even a raid). It dropped, I won the roll, and all is good. My friend who was with me wanted it. She then ran that 9 times a day for 4 weeks (because it wasn’t a raid, no lock out). Never dropped again.

But even that was aesthetics. Not best in slot.

I agree there is a grind if you want to go and get a legendary. Holy cats, there is a grind. But it’s utterly unnecessary as the stats are no better than the top-level stat gear. One does it for the prestige and the looks. That’s it. Gameplay wise, you are no different from anybody else.

There is no need to have best in slot gear to be better than everyone else in WoW except on paper. And guess what? If you’re better than everyone else in your raid – who are there with you earning your weapon for you – that means you’re benefitting the group as a whole and that’s the entire idea behind team play.

I dislike the argument that gear makes you “better” so you are forced to get it when it’s simply untrue. You get it as a reward for “getting better” as a group.

And if PvP is your thing, player skill is enough to propel an iLvl 460 player over an iLvl 510 player. What that means is there’s a 50 point swing – otherwise known as all gear past questing in the current content level – make you viable in any match.

It’s simply an argument that doens’t hold water anymore.

Zeldain.5710:

There is no need to have best in slot gear to be better than everyone else in WoW except on paper. And guess what? If you’re better than everyone else in your raid – who are there with you earning your weapon for you – that means you’re benefitting the group as a whole and that’s the entire idea behind team play.

I dislike the argument that gear makes you “better” so you are forced to get it when it’s simply untrue. You get it as a reward for “getting better” as a group.

And if PvP is your thing, player skill is enough to propel an iLvl 460 player over an iLvl 510 player. What that means is there’s a 50 point swing – otherwise known as all gear past questing in the current content level – make you viable in any match.

It’s simply an argument that doens’t hold water anymore.

Actually, given some dungeons and raids lock you out unless you have a certain item level means you have to gear up before you do a particular piece of content.

I remember playing back in Cata. I HAD to do heroic dungeons if I wanted to Raid. And then if I wanted to do HC Raids, I HAD to do Normal raids until I had enough pieces of the Tier whatever raiding gear, otherwise I didn’t have the stats to put out the DPS to beat the enrage timer.

The only time that it’s a reward is when you’re getting HC tier raiding gear. Otherwise it’s a mandatory requirement.

As for PvP, player skill only comes into it when two players are on even terms in terms of stats. Otherwise that guy who has top level PvP gear is going to beat the crap out of the guy who’s using crafted PvP gear.

Sure, knowing your class is part of it, but it’s also stupid to say that gear doesn’t make your character better when, in fact, it does. That’s how you go from possibly struggling the first time in HC dungeons to being able to steamroll them with any Tom, Dick or Harry.

Hi everyone,

This discussion has derailed into WoW. Hence we are closing it. Please refrain from this behaviour in the future.

Thanks