Guild Wars 2

Aeonblade.8709:

Man, If it only takes 120 hours to get a fully geared character I’m glad I picked this game back up!

I bought it back during release and ended up returning it, but was fully engulfed by Rift’s expansion at the time, not because GW2 was bad or anything. After months of grinding dungeons/raids and 300 hours of play time later I’m still not in the best gear in that game.

To the OP: Yes there is a time investment, but if it’s only 120 hours for max level and gear, GW2 headed in the right direction.

120 hours to get a max level geared character. How many more if you want to experiment with builds in say WvW?

Alarox.4590:

Soulstar.7812:

Grind is there, but it’s not necessary…

You ask “why the grind?”
I ask “Why are you grinding?”

Ascended gear is over-rated, and it doesn’t make you a better player.

In all, I don’t like the laurels either. The argument you are making is seriously lacking any sense, but there is point to be made.

Problem is 90% of people complaining about laurels are attacking it as if it was the core of the game, it’s not.
The REAL problem of laurels is that it’s bland content and that was proclaimed to extend the longevity of the game. Three months of events scrapped to stabilize bugs, even out the classes, and add a over-hyped “living story”. This was enough to keep most players playing, but there is a small good sized number of disappointed players growing.

Some would disagree with me, but I feel the content is only going to continue to be watered down to small events being over hyped.
If you disagree and decide to continue to play, GOOD ON YOU.
If you want to cry about laurel grind as if it were important, great find another game and be happy.

I think ANet should be fully aware of the situation at hand, and the route it’s going isn’t good. Only time will tell, Maybe I am wrong… Who knows.

Blacklight.2871:

Why do you need to have a fully geared character? I mean, aside from making farming faster. I have 11 characters, 5 80s and not one of them is in full exotics yet. Despite this, I’m not prevented from engaging in ANY kind of content or gameplay.

The idea that you have to be fully geared is nothing but an arbitrary goal set by the players themselves. If you want to focus on that to the exclusion of all else, then don’t complain about grinding. No one is forcing you to do it except you. Play the game and everything will eventually take care of itself. If you’re unable to wait for your goodies, don’t blame the game for giving you the opportunity to speed things up by grinding.

Ema.4953:

It’s not grinding, it’s called game play. If you expect the best of everything with little to no effort what is the point? Grinding is spending months and months and months to get even the most basic of things.
Exotics, ascended etc, need you to play the game to get them and it won’t be an instant gratification deal – it will involve time to play and skill. The thing is though, you don’t need exotics or ascended if you don’t want. You can still play the game perfectly fine without them.
This game is multi-faceted. You can do a great deal of things in it all the while not needing to grind to get there. If you want to grind a dungeon/event/path/whatever, that’s your choice, it’s not compulsory.

We have two possible scenarios.

1.) Exotic gear is the best. You can get it through any style of play in a reasonable amount of time.

2.) Ascended gear is the best. You can get it only through specific content, and over a long period of time. Ascended gear is X% better than Exotic.

In scenario 1 everyone wins. In scenario 2, nobody benefits while others are frustrated.

This is one of the main reasons why people don’t want this. Does nothing good, causes only problems.

You also only get exotics through specific content and it takes time. White<blue<green<orange<pink with legendary as a possible always BiS. Each one of those tiers takes longer and more effort than the previous one. Your logic dictates there should only be white gear.

I am 30 y old with work and school, and a horrible player. I am slow and clumsy with my character.

I have level 80 with exotics, and ascended gear… really what’s your problem?

The game isn’t hard… at all.

Soulstar.7812:

Alarox.4590:

Soulstar.7812:

Grind is there, but it’s not necessary…

You ask “why the grind?”
I ask “Why are you grinding?”

Ascended gear is over-rated, and it doesn’t make you a better player.

In all, I don’t like the laurels either. The argument you are making is seriously lacking any sense, but there is point to be made.

Problem is 90% of people complaining about laurels are attacking it as if it was the core of the game, it’s not.
The REAL problem of laurels is that it’s bland content and that was proclaimed to extend the longevity of the game. Three months of events scrapped to stabilize bugs, even out the classes, and add a over-hyped “living story”. This was enough to keep most players playing, but there is a small good sized number of disappointed players growing.

Some would disagree with me, but I feel the content is only going to continue to be watered down to small events being over hyped.
If you disagree and decide to continue to play, GOOD ON YOU.
If you want to cry about laurel grind as if it were important, great find another game and be happy.

I think ANet should be fully aware of the situation at hand, and the route it’s going isn’t good. Only time will tell, Maybe I am wrong… Who knows.

Blacklight.2871:

Why do you need to have a fully geared character? I mean, aside from making farming faster. I have 11 characters, 5 80s and not one of them is in full exotics yet. Despite this, I’m not prevented from engaging in ANY kind of content or gameplay.

The idea that you have to be fully geared is nothing but an arbitrary goal set by the players themselves. If you want to focus on that to the exclusion of all else, then don’t complain about grinding. No one is forcing you to do it except you. Play the game and everything will eventually take care of itself. If you’re unable to wait for your goodies, don’t blame the game for giving you the opportunity to speed things up by grinding.

We have two possible scenarios.

1.) Exotic gear is the best. You can get it through any style of play in a reasonable amount of time.

2.) Ascended gear is the best. You can get it only through specific content, and over a long period of time. Ascended gear is X% better than Exotic.

In scenario 1 everyone wins. In scenario 2, nobody benefits while others are frustrated.

This is one of the main reasons why people don’t want this. Does nothing good, causes only problems.

Does nothing good and causes problems, you say…

I’m fine. I don’t have problems.

/yourlogic.

Call it what it really is… Your problem…
and even you can solve it a number of ways.

I thought I was pretty clear, sorry.

If it does nothing good, but negatively affects a number of people (I never said it has to be everyone), why is it in the game?

It seems you’re taking the stance that if something bad happens to someone else and does nothing good for you, them, or anyone else, you don’t mind if it happens. Actually, you would then rather argue for it rather than against or not at all? Doesn’t make sense to me.

killcannon.2576:

You also only get exotics through specific content and it takes time. White<blue<green<orange<pink with legendary as a possible always BiS. Each one of those tiers takes longer and more effort than the previous one. Your logic dictates there should only be white gear.

Nope. My logic does not imply that only white gear should exist. All I’ve done is explain why Ascended gear is a bad idea, not why having multiple tiers is a bad idea.

Soulstar.7812:

I am 30 y old with work and school, and a horrible player. I am slow and clumsy with my character.

I have level 80 with exotics, and ascended gear… really what’s your problem?

The game isn’t hard… at all.

Who complained about the game being hard? That’s certainly an interesting argument for someone to take.

Alarox.4590:

killcannon.2576:

You also only get exotics through specific content and it takes time. White<blue<green<orange<pink with legendary as a possible always BiS. Each one of those tiers takes longer and more effort than the previous one. Your logic dictates there should only be white gear.

Nope. My logic does not imply that only white gear should exist. All I’ve done is explain why Ascended gear is a bad idea, not why having multiple tiers is a bad idea.

Your post states that having X tier gear is “good enough”. If white tier gear is good enough, with included player skill, then no other tier or power progression need exist. You say X tier is bad because it is unnecessary, If the majority of players can complete the largest part of the game content without X tier of gear then that tier is unjustified. Therefor, by your post, exotics and masterwork are both unnecessary because, simply, they are not needed to complete the majority of content with a sufficiently skilled group.

killcannon.2576:

Alarox.4590:

killcannon.2576:

You also only get exotics through specific content and it takes time. White<blue<green<orange<pink with legendary as a possible always BiS. Each one of those tiers takes longer and more effort than the previous one. Your logic dictates there should only be white gear.

Nope. My logic does not imply that only white gear should exist. All I’ve done is explain why Ascended gear is a bad idea, not why having multiple tiers is a bad idea.

Your post states that having X tier gear is “good enough”. If white tier gear is good enough, with included player skill, then no other tier or power progression need exist. You say X tier is bad because it is unnecessary, If the majority of players can complete the largest part of the game content without X tier of gear then that tier is unjustified. Therefor, by your post, exotics and masterwork are both unnecessary because, simply, they are not needed to complete the majority of content with a sufficiently skilled group.

That is not what my post says. My post is literally what I typed, nothing more and nothing less. If you’d like to know my thoughts on what you typed above then I’ll respond, but I did not state anything about that in my original post.

If you don’t like the ways in which you have to aquire ascended gear, then dont get it. You’re not restricted in any way by not having ascended gear.

We have two possible scenarios.
1.) Exotic gear is the best. You can get it through any style of play in a reasonable amount of time.
2.) Ascended gear is the best. You can get it only through specific content, and over a long period of time. Ascended gear is X% better than Exotic.
In scenario 1 everyone wins. In scenario 2, nobody benefits while others are frustrated.
This is one of the main reasons why people don’t want this. Does nothing good, causes only problems.

Your post. Post says if there were no tier called ascended everything would be ok. Post says that ascended is bad because it can only be obtained through certain avenues (which can be said of any gear) and that it has a time gate.

Using your own argument it can be stated that Exotic is time gated and can only be accessed though certain areas of the game, therefor it is bad. Masterwork gear is also gated, but not as much. Fine gear is also gated, but not as much as the others. Gating is applied to all gear in this game, and, many others.

Ascended gear does the exact same thing as exotic gear does, makes the game easier. You say that ascended does nothing good. Therefor all gear besides basic gear does nothing good, since all gear shares the same attributes to acquire just to a lesser extent.

Rhaps.8540:

The thing is, Anet know this. People will hang around for months on end to have these measly stat-boosted gimmick items which are carefully gated behind time-locked currencies. And all the time they are playing the game they are potential gem store customers. That’s the bottom line here, money. Gw2 is far more a commercial enterprise than the original. The huge grinds for legendaries, the slow aquisition of currencies for ascended gear, it’s all to keep the cash flowing.

The game, once purchased, is free to play. Now I can grok coming up with ways to keep players around for a subscription based game but as long as you aren’t required to use Gems to get slightly more tricked out shinny, it’s not like they are making any money off of those players.

Of course if they release more and more armor and weapon skins for Gems, then I can see the money argument.