I jumped the gun and finished the other 9 requirements for Winter’s Presence. I thought the Imbiber achievement would have been okay to handle at least over the year they say. Doing some napkin math, if you are in the JP every second you are in the game and say you play for 3 hours every day without fail. Suppose you succeed at the JP 50% of the time (7 complete runs per round) and you get a drink from presents 90% of the time, then you would need to play for 71.4 hours or 23 days and 20 hours of non-stop JP just to get enough presents to convert to drinks before you need to start relying on the TP. You basically either need to dedicate your life to this JP while Wintersday is going or be prepared to pay a ton of money.
I wish I had done this math prior to making the MF items. That’s 50g I won’t be getting back
drink the drinks, sell the crap from the boxes, buy more drinks, i’ll be getting my shoulders tonight or maybe tomorrow, it works. Tonics are annoying because you have to drink them 1 at a time, but…they’re cheaper than the other drinks by over 1 silver each, it adds up.
I would also like to see an official response (couldn’t find one) regarding whether/which of the repeatable achievements are supposed to count for the meta and whether/which of the previous year’s achievements are supposed to count again if we already did them. There has been a lot of conflicting information and confusion and I for one can’t tell if this involves bugs. I’m pretty sure some people are also confusing the one-time achievements with the repeatable for the same event and are misreporting information. I have completed a repeatable but it did not count for the meta.
In any case, according to my own progress it would appear that, if none of the repeatables count, then there is only one skippable achievement this year, and that would mean that you would have to do at least one of the mass-consumption achievements (candy canes or drinks). Is this intended?
Sadly I feel the need to toss in my two cents.
I find the achievement for Winter’s Presence ridiculous, and to be specific the Festive Imbiber. Are you bloody kidding me? 10k drinks? As much as I enjoy the Bell Choir activity, I cannot spend my supposedly happy Christmas vacation doing the same thing over and over again. Why didn’t you call this achievement with the correct name “Xmas Gold Sink”. Did you not think of the people who actually have jobs and don’t have time to spend grinding this shoulder piece? In my opinion 5k drinks was going to be still a bit difficult, but at least people could achieve it if they worked hard for it.
Either give us recipes to craft these drinks throughout the year or just don’t extend this achievement because perhaps only 1% of the players actually have the amount of gold to buy the drinks from the TP when Wintersday is over.
Sorry to say, but for me this year’s xmas event is quite disappointing.
its no different to the long term consumption achievments in GW1, its a long term goal for those that like long term goals. Note 9x% of the achievments on offer from the holiday are short and mid term goals, why should those that want a long term goal not get some content too?
“Trying to please everyone would not only be challenging
but would also result in a product that might not satisfy anyone”- Roman Pichler, Strategize
Seriously though, if you don’t want to spend the time needed to get this shoulder piece, don’t do it.. Nobody is forcing you to do this, and there are plenty other skins in the game that you can get instead.. I just don’t get what is sooo terrible about all of this.
Not everybody is willing to go through all those fractals just to get the legendary backpiece, same for PvP. Not everybody is willing to spend all their time to craft a legendary weapon, you don’t hear them complaining it takes too long or whatever to craft one. Why should this be any different? Crafting any legendary weapon or backpiece is going to take time and gold, this is just the same. Either you farm the presents now, or you have one year to just play the game, get some gold, buy more booze and slowly but surely get that shoulder piece.
Yeah it’d make sense that prizes will go up, unless a lot of people give up on their shoulder piece after the end of Wintersday.. Who knows? ^^’
I’m just lucky I’m a hoarder, so I had a lot of stuff in my bank that I could sell to get a lot of the drinks already, and the rest I managed to get from the different mini-games, and mostly from the bell choir and trading for karma with the merchant. It wasn’t too bad in the end
I think I will not complete this Grind Wars – Wintersday Collection, for 3 reasons:
1. I hate leaving my family for hours of grinding in a FTP game.
2. I do not wish to destroy my mouse or fingers with 20.000 clicks (10.000 double-clicks), because exploiting Grind Wars client with other software is not allowed.
3. If I would obtain 800 gold from gems, it would cost me about 75$. Instead of spending 75$ on my ingame character for Festive Imbiber achievement and skin; I think it’s better, in my personal opinion, to spend 75$ on imbibing myself with beer and wine for 2 whole weeks.
I have no issue with long term goals (within reason). But what ANET did to us players is wrong. To make a time sensitive project in a very busy time of the year; not to mention a massive time skin just for a skin is just ludicrous.
Most games reward their players with a nice gift and a fun event just as a way to say thanks. Not ANET. This Winters event is the worst event I have ever played in any game.
I never expected a game to do this to its player base and got in over my head before I realized how much time it would take. I am farming bells (i can’t do the jump puzzle) 4-5 hours a night EVERY night! It is not fun, I am not happy with Anet. If I could get all my karma, drinks, etc back I would happily walk away from this event
I have played GW1 & GW2 nearly every night since day 20, and soon as I get the skin I am taking a long break form GW2 till I really feel like playing again.
its no different to the long term consumption achievments in GW1, its a long term goal for those that like long term goals. Note 9x% of the achievments on offer from the holiday are short and mid term goals, why should those that want a long term goal not get some content too?
The difference is that it is a timed event (not long term) at a busy time of the year. It is also an unreasonable fee for a skin. Most games give away things at the end of the year to say thanks. It appears that the Devs do not like us as much as we thought.
Wildstar had a ton of nice rewards. Star trek online give away a $30 top of the line ship just for doing a few races. It shoes they really appreciate the base and and happy they play their game.
I also checked. I cannot get the Wintersday Meta without 10k drinks and 2,500 candy canes. This is unacceptable!! You are making it literally impossible for me to get this Meta in the time period it is active. I don’t have gold to buy what I need. I have to earn it. So what do you expect me to do? I’m literally incapable of finishing a Wintersday Meta for the first time ever.
Hey Keira, you can get the meta. Just do the snowball fight instead, and you will not need to do candy canes or drinking. You really do not have to be a superstar to win. Just put in the time. I feel your pain but hope this helps.
Does this mean we will still be able to get Winters Presence after wintersday? or is only the (Festive Imbibier) achievement still available? I really don’t care for the achievement I just want Winters Presence Skin…
I will ask to be certain I give you the best answer. Thanks for the question.
Hi Gaile, thanks for this info, it’s a huge relief for me and anyone else trying to complete the Winter’s Presence shoulders. However, I do have a few questions that I would like to ask, and hope you have the answers to.
Will the candy cane achievement be given similar treatment? It’s not required for the shoulders, but it’s still one that is on a similar progression scale as Festive Imbiber.
Will FI and the candy cane achievement progress the Wintersday meta after Jan 12? This is mainly a curiosity thing, am interested to know if the meta achieve will be locked after Jan 12 is over, even though anyone that really wants the meta won’t need it.
Will FI and the candy cane achievement’s progress carry to next Wintersday, similar to the Grawnk ones did from last year? Just another curiosity deal.
I will see what I can learn about these questions, as well. Thank you, Kamui.
Does ‘throughout the year’ mean that at the end of the year, the achievement will close, or is it more of an ‘all year every year’ kind of deal? These are very different scenarios.
Would love to know this. Can we work on it next year(s) during wintersday(s)? Meaning collection and drinks don’t reset?
You know they are struggling for a coherent position when they hide the problem in a “bury” thread. Such a normal and predictable response, whether it’s a games company, government, police department.
1. Minimise the exposure and manage the flow of information.
2. Pretend you’re doing something.
3. Wait for everybody to just go away and/or shut up.
Catastrophic brand collapse almost never happens, so this tactic will work in almost every single instance. So successful is this tactic that when it finally fails due to more people walking away than you expected it almost always results in catastrophe because nobody expected the standard tactic to ever fail so they never bothered to check if it was failing.
I will leave this here, as I am not sure if it’s a bug or what…. but some of the Festival achievements don’t count towards the meta achievement for me. I am talking about ‘Toypocalypse Survivor’ and ‘Snowball Mayham Participant’. They are required for the meta achievement, but so far they have not been accounted for, even though I have completed them several times already. In the achievement pannel they are marked as ‘Infinite’, which I suppose it means they can be completed again and again for the reward, but why they do not count towards the meta achievement?
I would appreciate if this can be looked into, and I am interested to hear if this is a one time case, or many others have the same issue.
The 18 I have do not count any of the repeatables, however they do include the two from last year, Generous harvest and Grawnk Much which I believe some people have said are not counting
As much as I enjoy the Bell Choir activity, I cannot spend my supposedly happy Christmas vacation doing the same thing over and over again. Did you not think of the people who actually have jobs and don’t have time to spend grinding this shoulder piece?
Sorry to say, but for me this year’s xmas event is quite disappointing.
They thought well of these people.
Usually these people own credit cards.
You are not forced to repeat Choir Bell like a robot.
Just use your credit card or Pay Pal and the Winter Pesence is yours.
If you are not willing to pay or to grind you won’t have it
Easy and simple.
To all the people asking- Yea save your drinks to sell AFTER Wintersday.
I got my shoulders within two days after Wintersdays day was released.
I never really participated in Wintersday, so getting the shoulders gave me incentive to do the xmas events- plus Jormag which i haven’t done him in like two years.
I still don’t understand why people are complaining. Nightfury didn’t get this much hate and that was FAR more expensive to make, and grind- /fistbump to the flax farmers.
I liked this- Yea it’s going to cost you “some” gold. But i like how it included all the actual wintersday events.
All skins in this game cost gold. Why these shoulders would be any different baffles me. It’s a game- you play the game- you get gold/or you get the items you want. Most of the complaints here sound like you just want to RP in divinity’s reach and get everything mailed to you. It’s a game guys, you have to actually play it. Sorry.
To all the people asking- Yea save your drinks to sell AFTER Wintersday.
I got my shoulders within two days after Wintersdays day was released.
I never really participated in Wintersday, so getting the shoulders gave me incentive to do the xmas events- plus Jormag which i haven’t done him in like two years.
I still don’t understand why people are complaining. Nightfury didn’t get this much hate and that was FAR more expensive to make, and grind- /fistbump to the flax farmers.
I liked this- Yea it’s going to cost you “some” gold. But i like how it included all the actual wintersday events.
All skins in this game cost gold. Why these shoulders would be any different baffles me. It’s a game- you play the game- you get gold/or you get the items you want. Most of the complaints here sound like you just want to RP in divinity’s reach and get everything mailed to you. It’s a game guys, you have to actually play it. Sorry.
TIL grinding a JP for 40 hours is playing the game.
All skins in this game cost gold. Why these shoulders would be any different baffles me. It’s a game- you play the game- you get gold/or you get the items you want. Most of the complaints here sound like you just want to RP in divinity’s reach and get everything mailed to you. It’s a game guys, you have to actually play it. Sorry.
It’s the AMOUNT of gold, the AMOUNT of grind. 10,000 is crazy stupid for a festive event, what is it about the AMOUNT of grind can’t you comprehend?
Seriously though, if you don’t want to spend the time needed to get this shoulder piece, don’t do it.. Nobody is forcing you to do this….
I see this too often.. too which I say and have said every year from way back in Guild Wars 1 days; This is supposed to be Christmas not Grindmas, it is the season for giving not taking up everyone’s time that should be spent with family and not glued to a computer screen ignoring everyone but your guild mates who often live in far off places in the world, it’s the season for fun and enjoyment and if you must glue yourself to your computer chair and play Guild Wars at least let those with less time have their fun and enjoy the game rather than throwing yellow snow at it, because it’s taking up time that should be better spent in real life, likely throwing hidden rock snowballs at family members because you’ve had enough of them building an ice forts in your front yard.
But no, no one is forcing you… except the fact that the item is unique and a once off never to be obtainable again ever, making this the only opportunity to obtain it.
I remember the days when we used to gather around, with glee and excitement each yearly event from halloween to wintersday, waiting to see what funny hats Dwayna & Grenth had for us that year, free they where as we stood on our chosen circle on the ground, collecting presents ever so often as well all free no effort required just be there, those days are gone now we must button mash and ignore all else in a tireless pursuit for it, why ArenaNET did you employ the Grinch to ruin the fun of those yester years?
I remember the days when we used to gather around, with glee and excitement each yearly event from halloween to wintersday, waiting to see what funny hats Dwayna & Grenth had for us that year, free they where as we stood on our chosen circle on the ground, collecting presents ever so often as well all free no effort required just be there, those days are gone now we must button mash and ignore all else in a tireless pursuit for it, why ArenaNET did you employ the Grinch to ruin the fun of those yester years?
Because things have changed.
Why?! Because they want more and more money.
In the past you obtained rewards for free (such as Toymaker Bag) or did a few very casual events.
Now, the mechanic is much more simple, with just a few clicks: buy gems, use gems to buy gold, use gold to obtain Christmas rewards. We should be happy, not sad. It’s a new year and over the past year rewards got easier to obtain.
I remember the days when we used to gather around, with glee and excitement each yearly event from halloween to wintersday, waiting to see what funny hats Dwayna & Grenth had for us that year, free they where as we stood on our chosen circle on the ground, collecting presents ever so often as well all free no effort required just be there, those days are gone now we must button mash and ignore all else in a tireless pursuit for it, why ArenaNET did you employ the Grinch to ruin the fun of those yester years?
Because things have changed.
Why?! Because they want more and more money.
In the past you obtained rewards for free (such as Toymaker Bag) or did a few very casual events.
Now, the mechanic is much more simple, with just a few clicks: buy gems, use gems to buy gold, use gold to obtain Christmas rewards. We should be happy, not sad. It’s a new year and over the past year rewards got easier to obtain.
That doesn’t mean all progress is a good thing, some progressive things are hideous and heinous crimes against humanity with various degrees of black to white, using a yearly event to gorge greedily on your customers with an event that is about giving and charity is one of those things from my perspective that falls into a darker gray area, if we want a civilization that is progressively good then we need to do good things to each other, if we want a greedy selfish civilization then we only need agree to the insanity of our current world, or you stand up against it and be counted in the face of all that is wrong and say no more.
This is 1 time a year they truly could show gratitude for their customers, “Please insert Credit Card here”, for your virtual items just doesn’t cut it, not because I would deny them finical reward far from it but because of the time of year this 1 particular event exists.
I remember the days when we used to gather around, with glee and excitement each yearly event from halloween to wintersday, waiting to see what funny hats Dwayna & Grenth had for us that year, free they where as we stood on our chosen circle on the ground, collecting presents ever so often as well all free no effort required just be there, those days are gone now we must button mash and ignore all else in a tireless pursuit for it, why ArenaNET did you employ the Grinch to ruin the fun of those yester years?
Because things have changed.
Why?! Because they want more and more money.
In the past you obtained rewards for free (such as Toymaker Bag) or did a few very casual events.
Now, the mechanic is much more simple, with just a few clicks: buy gems, use gems to buy gold, use gold to obtain Christmas rewards. We should be happy, not sad. It’s a new year and over the past year rewards got easier to obtain.
That doesn’t mean all progress is a good thing, some progressive things are hideous and heinous crimes against humanity with various degrees of black to white, using a yearly event to gorge greedily on your customers with an event that is about giving and charity is one of those things from my perspective that falls into a darker gray area, if we want a civilization that is progressively good then we need to do good things to each other, if we want a greedy selfish civilization then we only need agree to the insanity of our current world, or you stand up against it and be counted in the face of all that is wrong and say no more.
This is 1 time a year they truly could show gratitude for their customers, “Please insert Credit Card here”, for your virtual items just doesn’t cut it, not because I would deny them finical reward far from it but because of the time of year this 1 particular event exists.
They probably make a hell of a lot more money with the gem shop than they would if they charged everyone $15 a month to play the game. And the conversion rates for gems/gold are particularly greedy too — but it is what it is. I like the game, and I’m glad it isn’t “pay-to-win” (having endless gems doesn’t make your char stronger than other chars). Overall I’ve spent less on GW2 than other MMO’s over a similar time span (July 2013 – present), mainly due to the lack of a monthly fee. I did buy gems for the first time this fall (initially as part of the expansion, and later, another 8800) — but most of those later gems were for a holiday gift, and not for me personally.
I remember the days when we used to gather around, with glee and excitement each yearly event from halloween to wintersday, waiting to see what funny hats Dwayna & Grenth had for us that year, free they where as we stood on our chosen circle on the ground, collecting presents ever so often as well all free no effort required just be there, those days are gone now we must button mash and ignore all else in a tireless pursuit for it, why ArenaNET did you employ the Grinch to ruin the fun of those yester years?
Because things have changed.
Why?! Because they want more and more money.
In the past you obtained rewards for free (such as Toymaker Bag) or did a few very casual events.
Now, the mechanic is much more simple, with just a few clicks: buy gems, use gems to buy gold, use gold to obtain Christmas rewards. We should be happy, not sad. It’s a new year and over the past year rewards got easier to obtain.
That doesn’t mean all progress is a good thing, some progressive things are hideous and heinous crimes against humanity with various degrees of black to white, using a yearly event to gorge greedily on your customers with an event that is about giving and charity is one of those things from my perspective that falls into a darker gray area, if we want a civilization that is progressively good then we need to do good things to each other, if we want a greedy selfish civilization then we only need agree to the insanity of our current world, or you stand up against it and be counted in the face of all that is wrong and say no more.
This is 1 time a year they truly could show gratitude for their customers, “Please insert Credit Card here”, for your virtual items just doesn’t cut it, not because I would deny them finical reward far from it but because of the time of year this 1 particular event exists.
They probably make a hell of a lot more money with the gem shop than they would if they charged everyone $15 a month to play the game. And the conversion rates for gems/gold are particularly greedy too — but it is what it is. I like the game, and I’m glad it isn’t “pay-to-win” (having endless gems doesn’t make your char stronger than other chars). Overall I’ve spent less on GW2 than other MMO’s over a similar time span (July 2013 – present), mainly due to the lack of a monthly fee. I did buy gems for the first time this fall (initially as part of the expansion, and later, another 8800) — but most of those later gems were for a holiday gift, and not for me personally.
I think they could make a vote, to change GW2 into subscription based. I honestly think, if all players would pay 1$ per month, Anet would make a lot of money, so they can not even think about designing such strange and awful achivements in holidays. I would pay 1$ per month, simply to not be offended by such marketing, especially on Christmas times.
I think they could make a vote, to change GW2 into subscription based. I honestly think, if all players would pay 1$ per month, Anet would make a lot of money, so they can not even think about designing such strange and awful achivements in holidays. I would pay 1$ per month, simply to not be offended by such marketing, especially on Christmas times.
You underestimate the power of greed, you could be paying $250 a month and they might still do the same things regardless, of course with that sort of price per month I’d doubt they’d have any customers at all, in addition even if they did ask $1 I wouldn’t play anymore, it’s not the business model agreement I signed on.
But… I have to say that I hated every second doing bells for five hours every night. it was a horrible experience. This is not the type of game i want to play.
But… I have to say that I hated every second doing bells for five hours every night. it was a horrible experience. This is not the type of game i want to play.
Anet FAILED WIntersday
5 hours of choir bells? EVERY NIGHT?
You folks that did this kind of thing deserve alot more than these stupid shoulders. You should get a whole festive armor set so you can pick and choose which parts you want to use, and whether you’d like a light sprinkling of snow around you, or a darn blizzard effect.
Hat off to all of you that achieved this with tedious carpal tunnel inducing madness. I couldn’t even entertain the thought, once I saw the requirements. My sanity, what’s left of it after raising 2 kids is precious, as is the use of my hands (sans the busted one right now!) in the future!!
May the New Year see everyone looking wonderful in their new finery, and those still working on it, able to achieve it!
Autoclickers are legal, supposedly as long as you actually have your finger on some kind of button.
Bind your scroll-wheel to left click, or just rebind a button to left click rapidly when held down.
The “consume all” on drinks is so pointless, because the presents don’t have “consume all” as an option. Everybody is still going to get arthritis and carpel tunnel.
You can auto consume the drinks by clicking on the stacks. Also it’s like 700 gold which is a drop in a hat considering most people straight up bought their legendary after 2 weeks of farming in sw.
Your also not farming the JP- you do it 3 times. It’s guild wars 2- welcome to jumping puzzles. Jumping puzzles are one of the major fundamentals of this game ever since release. Every new map has introduced new JP’s- The new legendary collections even require them for you to progress. So complaining about those- It’s like why do you even play this game considering they are a foundation of this game.
Also- suggesting anyone to convert money into gold via the gem store- the exchange rate is so low- Why would anyone ever do that? Just play the game- all the new HoT zones are super profitable- just sell everything- Frac dailys take maybe 30-45 minutes tops and you make tons of raw gold, and you can just sell everything else.
If these shoulders are something that you want, it’s very obtainable. It’s not like you won’t have the time to buy the drinks after wintersday ends.
I think the problem here is you guys are farming these holiday events for presents. Do other things- far more profitable things as i suggested- and just buy the presents. It’s not worth the time outside of the achievements.
You can auto consume the drinks by clicking on the stacks. Also it’s like 700 gold which is a drop in a hat considering most people straight up bought their legendary after 2 weeks of farming in sw.
Your also not farming the JP- you do it 3 times. It’s guild wars 2- welcome to jumping puzzles. Jumping puzzles are one of the major fundamentals of this game ever since release. Every new map has introduced new JP’s- The new legendary collections even require them for you to progress. So complaining about those- It’s like why do you even play this game considering they are a foundation of this game.
Also- suggesting anyone to convert money into gold via the gem store- the exchange rate is so low- Why would anyone ever do that? Just play the game- all the new HoT zones are super profitable- just sell everything- Frac dailys take maybe 30-45 minutes tops and you make tons of raw gold, and you can just sell everything else.
If these shoulders are something that you want, it’s very obtainable. It’s not like you won’t have the time to buy the drinks after wintersday ends.
I think the problem here is you guys are farming these holiday events for presents. Do other things- far more profitable things as i suggested- and just buy the presents. It’s not worth the time outside of the achievements.
Yeah, JP are my bane (ugh,I am really horrid at them. I can get through one, but it’s a task) and though I don’t look sideways at anyone for their playstyle/choices.. 700g for these shoulders isn’t a choice I’d make for me. I’d rather pull an Ally Sheedy from the Breakfast Club and make my own darn snow effect!
You can auto consume the drinks by clicking on the stacks. Also it’s like 700 gold which is a drop in a hat considering most people straight up bought their legendary after 2 weeks of farming in sw.
Your also not farming the JP- you do it 3 times. It’s guild wars 2- welcome to jumping puzzles. Jumping puzzles are one of the major fundamentals of this game ever since release. Every new map has introduced new JP’s- The new legendary collections even require them for you to progress. So complaining about those- It’s like why do you even play this game considering they are a foundation of this game.
Also- suggesting anyone to convert money into gold via the gem store- the exchange rate is so low- Why would anyone ever do that? Just play the game- all the new HoT zones are super profitable- just sell everything- Frac dailys take maybe 30-45 minutes tops and you make tons of raw gold, and you can just sell everything else.
If these shoulders are something that you want, it’s very obtainable. It’s not like you won’t have the time to buy the drinks after wintersday ends.
I think the problem here is you guys are farming these holiday events for presents. Do other things- far more profitable things as i suggested- and just buy the presents. It’s not worth the time outside of the achievements.
Yeah, JP are my bane (ugh,I am really horrid at them. I can get through one, but it’s a task) and though I don’t look sideways at anyone for their playstyle/choices.. 700g for these shoulders isn’t a choice I’d make for me. I’d rather pull an Ally Sheedy from the Breakfast Club and make my own darn snow effect!
Hahah , I would actually love that . Man I loved that movie so much
Happiness is finding an Omnomberry in your Grumble Cake
Actually you will likely need to open 12,500 presents as the drinks drop rate is around 80%. That’s 50 stacks.
At this point of time, with 8 days left, are you good with JPs? 10 per completion and I’ve seen “good” players getting 10 done per 1/2 hour so 200 an hour. I’m fairly competent with the bell choir. You get 18 gifts per completed run and you may get 8 to 10 runs in an hour.
If you have loads of karma you can buy 100 a day with 228K karma. Additional ones are 3850 karma plus a T6 snowflake each.
So lots of gifts needed, not a lot of time, so good luck with that if you are just starting.
I’d check the cost of buying gifts to the cost of buying the drinks directly. I think drinks only sell for 80 copper more or pretty much even if you place buy orders.
I tend to use autohotkey and just bind the mouse click to the wheel for both directions. As long as it’s one click per action, and not automated, you’ll be fine.
I just, finally, got the wintersday shoulder skin. It looks nice but really, as many people before me, I say 10 000 drinks is a tad too much from an event where you cannot play any profitable game mode with your friends. Give us a halloween-labyrinth style event for christmas where we could play with our friends and it gives us reasonable amount of rewards for playing (Tixx’s 50 once a day and 25 the rest of the time was ridicilous, you’d do better with bells and jumping…alone… In an MMO you should never come across the question “Do I play with my friends or grind some achivements?”. This question took huge loads of time away from my GW2-friends and my irl-friends too (one being my wife, I’m glad she plays GW2 too so she understands). One thing that annoyed me a bit too was the thought that when I have children (probably I’m still playing GW2 or even GW3 then), I won’t have even half the time I used for this event which will mean I won’t get anything out of events like this because the shoulder skin was really the only thing worth doing achievements for this year.
Halloween was cool and well balanced, you had lots to do and you got something out of it without doing the biggest stuff, but the Wintersday was the worst really. I say this with such passion because I have loved original Guild Wars, loved GW2 even more and HoT is making things still better, let this winter be the worst you’ve done to your community and bring Tixx back next year with something worthwhile to do with your friends. Let GW2 be still the least grindy MMO I’ve played this far and make the 10 000 drinks a nice experience.
Everyone is complaining that this is a gold sink. Somehow, they’ve completely missed the very prominent purple triangle that’s attached to about every item being bought and consumed, every activity being run, and every bonus being posted by friendly guilds. This was a karma sink. With 6 days left on this, I figured it might be worthwhile to give some tips I noticed while doing this stuff.
Every activity has a daily bonus in rewards (haven’t verified this with Toypacalypse or Mayhem). With Infinirarium, you get double the presents the first time you do it. With WW and Bells, you get a separate reward of ~6k karma for each of your first three successful completions (runs or songs), in addition to the usual 1.5k.
You can buy presents with Karma. The same karma you do nothing else with the rest of the year. The same karma you get by the hundreds from events and by the thousands for doing Wintersday games. Presents get expensive fast; long time players already have millions stored up, but you can still rake in 100-200k in short order hanging around Divinity’s Reach doing Wintersday things.
To accomplish this, take advantage of every karma boost available to you before setting out in DR. Karma food and utilities come from presents by the fistful. Pop a Winter’s Blessing and keep Minty Breath up from Candy Canes. Your guild bartender might have a 24h karma boost for you. Equip your karma infusion if you have it. Karma banners and bonfires are pretty easy to find in the Wintersday area. Finally, add a karma booster if you can’t find a bonfire.
My current daily:
With Karma boosts active, run Donation Drive to all 30 orphans. You should net 35k+ karma from this (60k+ if you don’t have to buy gifts for the orphans).
Visit all three trees in DR for your free presents. Get the daily one from Tixx, too.
Do a full round of Bell Choir with karma boosts for 18 presents and 30k-42k karma.
Do three runs through the infernal JP for 30 presents and 24k-36k karma.
Do Infinirarium for 50 presents and ~6k karma.
Do any dailies involving snow and not involving skritt.
Buy as many presents as I think I can from the karma trader (50-90).
Leave DR and pursue dailies everywhere else. Retain sanity.
Hi Gaile, thanks for this info, it’s a huge relief for me and anyone else trying to complete the Winter’s Presence shoulders. However, I do have a few questions that I would like to ask, and hope you have the answers to.
Will the candy cane achievement be given similar treatment? It’s not required for the shoulders, but it’s still one that is on a similar progression scale as Festive Imbiber.
Will FI and the candy cane achievement progress the Wintersday meta after Jan 12? This is mainly a curiosity thing, am interested to know if the meta achieve will be locked after Jan 12 is over, even though anyone that really wants the meta won’t need it.
Will FI and the candy cane achievement’s progress carry to next Wintersday, similar to the Grawnk ones did from last year? Just another curiosity deal.
I will see what I can learn about these questions, as well. Thank you, Kamui.
Any updates before Wintersday is over??? Please Gaile Gray!
The 30 rounds of Snowball Mayhem alone will take a good hunk of hours and you’ll need to spend time in Bell Choir and Toypocalypse as well. Getting the dolyak escorts going so you can pick up dropped gifts may cost you gold as most people aren’t donating to Ho-Ho-Tron any longer. You’ll need to watch timers for when Claw of Jormag is up so you can go do that, and you need to do that boss 3 times. I don’t think you will be able to do Grawnk for the Star of Gratitude since as I recall that requires three days of bringing food to the Grawnk.
The 30 rounds of Snowball Mayhem alone will take a good hunk of hours and you’ll need to spend time in Bell Choir and Toypocalypse as well. Getting the dolyak escorts going so you can pick up dropped gifts may cost you gold as most people aren’t donating to Ho-Ho-Tron any longer. You’ll need to watch timers for when Claw of Jormag is up so you can go do that, and you need to do that boss 3 times. I don’t think you will be able to do Grawnk for the Star of Gratitude since as I recall that requires three days of bringing food to the Grawnk.
Hi Gaile, thanks for this info, it’s a huge relief for me and anyone else trying to complete the Winter’s Presence shoulders. However, I do have a few questions that I would like to ask, and hope you have the answers to.
Will the candy cane achievement be given similar treatment? It’s not required for the shoulders, but it’s still one that is on a similar progression scale as Festive Imbiber.
Will FI and the candy cane achievement progress the Wintersday meta after Jan 12? This is mainly a curiosity thing, am interested to know if the meta achieve will be locked after Jan 12 is over, even though anyone that really wants the meta won’t need it.
Will FI and the candy cane achievement’s progress carry to next Wintersday, similar to the Grawnk ones did from last year? Just another curiosity deal.
I will see what I can learn about these questions, as well. Thank you, Kamui.
Is there any update on this? I’m quite interested if the Sweet Tooth title is also available throughout the year. Or at least that progress on it is saved and coming back. Or anything of that sort.
“It isn’t working!” CL4P-TP
Ingame Name: Guardian Erik
Can you forge-craft the Essence of Snowfall, Essence of Mischief, and Magnanimous Obsidian Crystal after Wintersday is over, or will those recipes stop being usable in the forge?
