Guild Wars 2

So recently reaching 80 on my first character (I detoured through just about every class until I found my favorite) I have started to research the various armors and how to achieve my epic weapon. I still remember the hours myself and my friends poured into getting my cleric Tirnaug in Everquest his “epic” weapon. It was an achievement which gave a sense of personal accomplishment, but it was also a guild achievement since it required many of us to attain. I cannot help but feel ANET has completely missed the mark on what makes something “epic.”

For a game that focuses on storytelling for each individual class; how could they have missed such an opportunity and why did they turn the quest for an epic weapon into nothing more than a grind and/or lottery.

For me an epic is defined by;

The main character is a hero, who is often possessed of supernatural
abilities or qualities. We have this inherent into our characters at the onset of the quest.

The hero is charged with a quest. Upon reaching 80 you should be summoned to deal with a specific threat and hints of the path lain before you.

The hero is tested, often to prove the worthiness of himself and his quest. Luke had to go into the cave. Sir Gawain is constantly beset on all sides; even when he is in his lords keep. A series of small quests should be offered that offer you the chance to fail and have to either reset or take path B, C, D..

The presence of numerous mythical beings, magical and helpful animals, and human helpers and companions. This would provide us with a series of small quests to atone for our failures; gain guidancet o help overcome more challenges or simply find allies similar to the original storied quest.

The hero’s travels take him to a supernatural world, often one that normal human beings are barred from entering. Let us dip our blade in a river of the dead; temper it in the tears of a goddess draw the haft from the roots of the world tree.

The cycle must reach a low point where the hero nearly gives up his quest or appears defeated. You cannot become “heroic” until you overcome great adversity. Let there be a glimmer of hope a moment of revelation that opens a path before us.

A resurrection. Dying and being found worthy is a great story arc. But the death need not be ours but someone the character cares very much about.

Restitution. Often this takes the form of the hero regaining his rightful place on the throne. Let the sword be used in the knighting ceremony; laid at the table of kinship; let the axe be hung over the mantle of king of the north or the staff of the arch magi be awarded by the high council of mages.

Attaining your epic should consist more than hitting a button on a crafting panel. It should be a story into and of itself.

Here is how i earned my first epic weapon..and 75% of the other seven lvl 80 characters i own..

Run to Trading post search weapons level 80 exotic..
look for a suitable Exotic looking skin on Guildhead database..
Purchase Epic weapon for myself..
Not feeling very epic..

Anyone else feel the above is messed up so bad, the game needs serious fixing..

I’ve only ever found one Exotic in 1500+ hours of open world game play.

Sounds like a single player game to me.

You simply can’t have a highly sought after items like a legendary achieved through these means in an MMO. Sure it all sounds cool on paper, but when everyone can achieve a legendary, it’s not legendary at all. (inb4 you deny that, sorry but its a fact)

And say you make it hard enough that only 10% of the games population can progress through it. Well, all those months of hard work are wasted because it’s gated content. You’ll have every casual and their grandmother up in arms about how it’s impossible to beat and that they want it changed. It will be 10x more complaining then there ever was. Then inevitably it will show up in the laurels vendor and then we’re worse off then when we started.

O god, If getting legendaries was ANYTHING like EQ1 Epics, I would ACTUALLY enjoy the hunt for it.

The current Legendaries just feel like a unobtainable goal, and anytime I start considering farming for it, it hits me.. this is not a journey I would in any way enjoy.. It would be a 2000h-1000h long farm fest, only to get the gold required to BUY the components of the Legendary.

Unless ofcourse I was a economical wizard, that enjoyed crunching numbers for hours upon hours, to squeeze the most out of the tp.

That is another problem, the way guild wars 2 TP is constructed it very rarely allows for people like myself who rely on having a keen eye, to get a quick bonus, The users are simply given to much information (may sound stupid), so these bargains rarely ever happen.

I definatly have a grindy personality, I was about 12 when eq1 first came out, and despite its grindy nature I absolutely loved it.. because I always felt I was being rewarded for grinding.. here Anet activly tries to limit the players ability to grind, while ironicaly the item that alot if not most of your endgame revolve around is the biggest grind of them all.

Getting a epic in eq1 was freaking hard, but it was enjoyable, and it did not depend on how big your wallet was.

I still remeber farming raster for 72 hours STRAIGHT, and not getting the component i needed for my monk epic.. funny thing is I look back on that fondly, despite wasting 72 hours getting nothing of value, because there was always a chance of actually get it.

I REALLY want to go for one or more of the legendaries, but the only thing I would be likely to achive is ending up burnt out and fed up with the game.

And before the comment is made “Legendaries arnt for everyone” I am not “everyone”, I am a anti-social person by nature, and I spend more hours infront of the pc then what “normal” people would consider healthy, and even I do not consider the “journey” for the legendaries in theyr current for the be a logical goal.

And It definatly does not help that I joined the game much later then the most of you, I missed out on stuff like: Dungeons without DR, Dungeons where each boss gave 10s++, Lost Shores Precursor rain, and a number of other things.. which is fine.. Except I economicaly suffer because these things once happened, the after effects of these events are easily spotted on the tp.

This is why a Legendary should not have anything to do with money, stuff that effects the market also effects the difficulty of aquiring the legendary, I find it to already be at a unreasonable “difficulty”, and I very much doubt the difficulty will stop increasing any time soon.

Jrunyon.3012:

Sounds like a single player game to me.

You simply can’t have a highly sought after items like a legendary achieved through these means in an MMO. Sure it all sounds cool on paper, but when everyone can achieve a legendary, it’s not legendary at all. (inb4 you deny that, sorry but its a fact)

And say you make it hard enough that only 10% of the games population can progress through it. Well, all those months of hard work are wasted because it’s gated content. You’ll have every casual and their grandmother up in arms about how it’s impossible to beat and that they want it changed. It will be 10x more complaining then there ever was. Then inevitably it will show up in the laurels vendor and then we’re worse off then when we started.

You just contradicted yourself by saying that when it’s available to everyone, it’s not Legendary, but you can’t make it exclusive to a percentage of the population otherwise the other percentage will whine about it.

Legendary weapons are able to be gotten by everyone now. It just takes varying amounts of time / RL money.

Having ‘gates’ in which the player needs to improve themselves and use their character to the best of their ability to beat the obstacle isn’t a bad thing.

And give one good reason why you can’t have an epic questline to gain a Legendary?

As for the single-player game comment, have you not seen what you have to go through to get Legendary components in FFX?

• Dodge 200 Lightning Bolts
• Capture every beast in the Calm Lands
• Win Blitzball tourney when the component is the main prize
• God forbid you forget a component in one area, otherwise you’re in for a bad time

I have to say, everytime I see someone walking around with his “legendary” weapon, I just feel pity for him because either he wasted a good amount of real money or he grinded like a obsessed psycho without real life obligations.

Legendaries in GW2 are not epic, they are sad….