Guild Wars 2

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played. Almost everything top level in this game take either massive luck, lot of money or massive amount of time to get. And the most terrible thing is almost none of those require any amount of skill.

Legendary probably takes like 2 years to get unless you are either extremely lucky, play > 10 hours a day , or pay $500. Even Ascended would take like 1-2 months for casual players , 3-4 months for the armor sets. And now with HoT out, even more grind are needed just to unlock the new specializations (which should be unlocked freely after purchase ).

When I compared it with a truly casual game like Warframe for ex: It took me 3 weeks to obtain top level gears. After 5 weeks, with a bit of luck and trading skills, I was able to get Frost Prime, which was by far the rarest, most valuable piece of gear in the game at that time, matched only by some of the (really good ) stuffs that no longer drop for several years.That’s what I would call Casual/

Because

1. you don’t need ascended to do content, it’s not gated by armor, you can do quite nicely with exotics and

2. there’s no new tier of gear next week, or next month, or next year. Sure it might take you 2 months to get your gear. But that’s it.

You may find that grindy…but I don’t.

As Vayne said. The perks from Ascended and Legendaries are minimal. The game is very casual, you can practically play once a week for a couple hours and you won’t be losing anything. Of course special items need grinding. Too many people in this day and time are used to the McD menu and getting everything on a silver platter just because they showed up for something.

I don’t think you compare how casual a type of shooter game is to an mmo world with an economy and a story line. The reasons people play the two games are different and how the companies need to retain players is different. With a shooter game, it’s more reasonable to get your top level gear fast because the emphasis is fighting other players and not the other things that people do in this game.

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played. Almost everything top level in this game take either massive luck, lot of money or massive amount of time to get. And the most terrible thing is almost none of those require any amount of skill.

Legendary probably takes like 2 years to get unless you are either extremely lucky, play > 10 hours a day , or pay $500. Even Ascended would take like 1-2 months for casual players , 3-4 months for the armor sets. And now with HoT out, even more grind are needed just to unlock the new specializations (which should be unlocked freely after purchase ).

When I compared it with a truly casual game like Warframe for ex: It took me 3 weeks to obtain top level gears. After 5 weeks, with a bit of luck and trading skills, I was able to get Frost Prime, which was by far the rarest, most valuable piece of gear in the game at that time, matched only by some of the (really good ) stuffs that no longer drop for several years.That’s what I would call Casual/

you misunderstand what a casual game is, its a game where there are not gates preventing casual player from playing, casual players can quite happily spend years developing their characters. A Casual game is not casual because you can max something in 3 weeks.

mmorpgs are all about having the opportunity to spend years developing your avatar, something people coming from a purely single player/non rpg background fail to understand.

vesica tempestas.1563:

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played. Almost everything top level in this game take either massive luck, lot of money or massive amount of time to get. And the most terrible thing is almost none of those require any amount of skill.

Legendary probably takes like 2 years to get unless you are either extremely lucky, play > 10 hours a day , or pay $500. Even Ascended would take like 1-2 months for casual players , 3-4 months for the armor sets. And now with HoT out, even more grind are needed just to unlock the new specializations (which should be unlocked freely after purchase ).

When I compared it with a truly casual game like Warframe for ex: It took me 3 weeks to obtain top level gears. After 5 weeks, with a bit of luck and trading skills, I was able to get Frost Prime, which was by far the rarest, most valuable piece of gear in the game at that time, matched only by some of the (really good ) stuffs that no longer drop for several years.That’s what I would call Casual/

you misunderstand what a casual game is, its a game where there are not gates preventing casual player from playing, casual players can quite happily spend years developing their characters. A Casual game is not casual because you can max something in 3 weeks.

mmorpgs are all about having the opportunity to spend years developing your avatar, something people coming from a purely single player/non rpg background fail to understand.

This. What makes this game casual is you can get to level 80 without ever leaving the 1-15 zone.

I played for a few months at lunch. I played for a few months two years ago. I started playing again in November. About three weeks ago I decided I wanted ascended weapons. It was not hard. The time it took was only due to time gated materials. I had almost everything I needed already stored in my bank. I’ve had 2 ascended weapons for a few days now. My husband got interested after seeing my first. He also crafted one this week (and got a drop off Teqatl, wtf RNG). We mostly just duo together so we aren’t doing dungeons, fractals or raids. Just normal PVE playing.

Anyandrell.6238:

As Vayne said. The perks from Ascended and Legendaries are minimal. The game is very casual, you can practically play once a week for a couple hours and you won’t be losing anything. Of course special items need grinding. Too many people in this day and time are used to the McD menu and getting everything on a silver platter just because they showed up for something.

Which I would like to endorse. Please, Anet, make this so.

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played. Almost everything top level in this game take either massive luck, lot of money or massive amount of time to get. And the most terrible thing is almost none of those require any amount of skill.

Legendary probably takes like 2 years to get unless you are either extremely lucky, play > 10 hours a day , or pay $500. Even Ascended would take like 1-2 months for casual players , 3-4 months for the armor sets. And now with HoT out, even more grind are needed just to unlock the new specializations (which should be unlocked freely after purchase ).

When I compared it with a truly casual game like Warframe for ex: It took me 3 weeks to obtain top level gears. After 5 weeks, with a bit of luck and trading skills, I was able to get Frost Prime, which was by far the rarest, most valuable piece of gear in the game at that time, matched only by some of the (really good ) stuffs that no longer drop for several years.That’s what I would call Casual/

You & I disagree about what we’d call “casual”.

• You can gear up to exotic in hours, never mind weeks. That’s all you need to be able to enjoy all the content, aside from three specific niches: advanced fractals, raids, and GvG. Obtaining the requested and/or necessary ascended gear is definitely doable within 5 weeks.
• Legendaries are not ‘rare’ — they don’t drop at all. They are rewards for investing time in a long-term scavenger hunt.
• The only things that require tons of items unavailable on the TP, thus requiring repeating the same content (i.e. ‘grinding’) are completely optional. They, too, aren’t meant to be acquired quickly.

I don’t like some of the mechanics in the game or some of the acquisition requirements for some of the shinies, but neither do I feel compelled to rush completion of anything.

Thus, it’s completely up to you whether you want to grind out something quickly or take your time. That’s one of major components of ‘casual’. (The other component is content being accessible to you whenever you happen to logon and that’s still ‘casual’, although nowhere near as casual as it was at launch.)

your idea of casual is how long it takes to obtain certain things
you can obtain exotic relatively fast
you can reach max level relative fast as well
you dont need ascended to do most of the contents, the open world surely do not require ascended

all in all, with ur casual definition, this game is casual.
in warframe, you still have to level weapons after obtaining them, here, you only level characters.

the only not so casual part about this game is the masteries system, which requires a ton of xp. you could do every possible event twice and still not get all your masteries. grinding is required

anyway, it used to be more casual than it is, but it is still a casual game

Well… Casual…

you can get gear while leveling for no cost until you reach lvl 80

@ lvl 80 you can aquire gear (armor, weapons, trinkets, basic upgrade components) though:

• crafting
  (relatively expensive due to costs of raising crafting level, but in the long run best choice)
• dungeons
  (you’ll need 23 runs in an explorable dungeon (preferably 1 for same stats) total for 1380 tokens for an armor if I’m right, you can also get weapons for 180/210/300 tokens)
• drops
  (Luck, or map clearing… both could give you high level exotic gear, whcih could contain valuable uipgrade components, or can be prfect to use yourself, all armors not being zerk tend to be reasonably priced.)
• WvW
  (with a couple of hundred WvW tokens you can buy an armro cheap)
• karma
  (with 252000 karma you can buy a lvl 80 armor.)

But then what could we do…

• Log in for laurels for an Ascneded Amulet 1 month should provide you with 25-30 laurels enough to buy and amulet, it will be cheaper in laurels in WvW
• Casual fractals (1-20) for Ascneded Rings 10 completed paths is 1 free ring of choice, Laurels could be used, but price is high and fractals will give other revenue, repeatabel as often as you want. Fractals will give acces to an easy (mystic forge (quiver/tome/fractal backpack) and a hard (lvl 500 crafting (unbound)) ascneded back as well.
• Guild missions will give you acces to Guild commendations, You’ll need to join a guild or start one yourself… depensing on your expertise and the size and level of the guild you can harvest 1-12 comendations a week (if I’m right) with some gold and these will be exchangeable for ascneded accesoires,

With these items you can do about all things including mid level fractals (lvl 21-50)

Leaving only :

• High level fractals (50+) (infusions, and HoT needed )
• High end WvW (infused WVW sets) (infusions, a lot of badges of honor needed)
• RAIDS (high end “elite” content) (Ascended trinekts and weapons mostly mandatory, armor preferred..
  as “impossible goals” .

These will require investments in Ascneded weapons, and armor.

As for legendaries, it’s a choice, legendaries will not give any stat or damage advantage over ascnededs. just an easy way to swap stats for no added cost.
In the future this will hold true as well for legendary armor , legendary backs.

But I have 2 Legendaries and I have changes stats on them maybe 2 or 3 times in the 2+ years I have ‘m… this because the stats will change, but not the sigils… and sigils tend to be expensive and the character you are playing on will likely have 1 set of gear only at the time you’re playing for ascneded and legendaries….

As for masteries, I used to level once / 1-1.5 hours (254k XP) making the 161 points of masteries take about 322-485 hours to level….

Provided you have the mastery points to invest and not playing with XP boosters as

• birthday (+ 100 % XP, 24hr) or celebration booster( + 100 % XP,1hr) (don’t stack)
  but will stack with:
• XP boosters + 50% (old 1hr) and/or new + 50 % (2hr)),
• food ( + 10-15 % , 30m/1hr),
• utility ( + 10 % , 30m/1hr),
• banners ( + 5 ,10, 15 %, 1hr / 2hrs if you refresh ),
• fireworks ( +10 % stackable duration (max 2 hour stack)

These when stacked give 250% added XP lowering the duration to
322 / 3.5 = 92 hours
482 / 3.5 = 132 hours

Providing you play the game and are not into XP farming… I did 10 hours of XP farm at HoT launch with full boosters and levelled tyria mastery (49 points) -fully- leaving me just to do the HoT part… in HoT I noticed I got most of my XP by just exploring, getting my masteries and doing map-events…

Well written everyone! This thread is an illustration of how different (and the same) GW2 is from other mmorpgs: from WarFrame to Eve; from Gears of War to Elite Dangerous; from Ghost Recon to Fallout 4. Casual gaming is defined by not how we play and the rewards gained, but rather when we play and the achievements completed.

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played. Almost everything top level in this game take either massive luck, lot of money or massive amount of time to get. And the most terrible thing is almost none of those require any amount of skill.

The game is very grindy, everything A-net touches is, to an extent players seem to expect this, immersion is an important part of the MMO. And for Open world PvE you should never have huge problems, with a properly runed toon.

That said you wont survive 5 minutes in fractals without ascended gear, the anguish mechanic sees to that, and good luck finding a dungeon group if your not totally plugged into the Zerker Meta, Level 80 and know to the Pixel just where to (barf) stack.

MMO gamers I think have a very different view of casual, than players of other games, and this from someone with +2000 hours in GW1; but I play to take a break from life, and job, and all that; not because I need a 2nd job. Personally, I very much agree with you; but I am not at all suprised; I am in the Minority.

At the end of the day the Game was developed by Elites, for Elites, and the cries of Anguish that go up when any change steps back from that (economically suicidal) meta, tells me this will not change anytime soon. The Elites are very vocal, and by definition most of use more casual players are not. Happy Hunting. C.

I think weather it’s grindy or not depends how much you care about vanity item.

It’s pretty casual if you don’t.

To OP try to play ex. Aion then you’ll know the true meaning of grind.

Vayne.8563:

Because

1. you don’t need ascended to do content, it’s not gated by armor, you can do quite nicely with exotics and

Was true, is no longer, the HoT areas, and especially the raids, are balanced around ascended gear. You have to have it, and getting is as hardcore and non-casual friendly a grind as you will find in any western MMO.

Vayne.8563:

2. there’s no new tier of gear next week, or next month, or next year. Sure it might take you 2 months to get your gear. But that’s it. .

That’s what they said up until less than six months before they added ascended gear…

rofl hot area is not balanced around ascended gear, I can quite happily solo camps in my cloth elementalist with no problems. As for raids, its compelted by players in exotics so you are clearly wrong, also the single raid in the game represents a fraction of the content in the game.

Claudia De Anar.6304:

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played. Almost everything top level in this game take either massive luck, lot of money or massive amount of time to get. And the most terrible thing is almost none of those require any amount of skill.

The game is very grindy, everything A-net touches is, to an extent players seem to expect this, immersion is an important part of the MMO. And for Open world PvE you should never have huge problems, with a properly runed toon.

That said you wont survive 5 minutes in fractals without ascended gear, the anguish mechanic sees to that, and good luck finding a dungeon group if your not totally plugged into the Zerker Meta, Level 80 and know to the Pixel just where to (barf) stack.

MMO gamers I think have a very different view of casual, than players of other games, and this from someone with +2000 hours in GW1; but I play to take a break from life, and job, and all that; not because I need a 2nd job. Personally, I very much agree with you; but I am not at all suprised; I am in the Minority.

At the end of the day the Game was developed by Elites, for Elites, and the cries of Anguish that go up when any change steps back from that (economically suicidal) meta, tells me this will not change anytime soon. The Elites are very vocal, and by definition most of use more casual players are not. Happy Hunting. C.

Actually, the HoT content is balanced around Exotic, not Ascended, gear, and the “Zerker Stack” metagame is simply a player construct for efficiency. They’re designed to be done at the level you first are able to play them (30, 35, 40, kitten, 55, etc)

The problem is simply a toxic metagame because people value efficiency. Why settle for anything less than the best? Just find a friendly guild or friends to play dungeons and the other stuff the PUG Meta demands top performance for.

Its casual because of the complete lack of effort you can put forth and still get gold. The moment there is a slight indication of possible difficulty, players run to the forum to spill salt until anet caters to them.

This last wintersday was pretty choice lol players were so angry that they had to do the jp 3 times (don’t ask how their wasd + key 1 couldnt translate into wasd+ space….Im stumped by that too) that they came to the forums demanding for a nerf by claiming that it unfair to handicap and elder aged players….yet not a single one taking part in advocacy for a colorblind mode ( a much bigger proportion of the game population) . weird how the "most noblest intentions " disappear when a reward isn’t on the line. XDDD

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played.

Then you haven’t played many games at ALL!!! In other games farming gear is ALL you do and you never, ever finish.

Here is why GW2 is the LEAST grindy game I’ve ever played.

1. Top gear doesn’t change, once you have top tier, it will ALWAYS be top tier.

2. You can play 99% of the highest level content very competently with the THIRD highest tier of gear.

3. Ascended gear is actually pretty easy to get but is designed that it CANNOT just be bought. You have to play the game to earn it and it takes a little time BUT while you are farming it you can still play with 99% effectiveness in exotic gear.

Vayne.8563:

Because

1. you don’t need ascended to do content, it’s not gated by armor, you can do quite nicely with exotics and

2. there’s no new tier of gear next week, or next month, or next year. Sure it might take you 2 months to get your gear. But that’s it.

You may find that grindy…but I don’t.

Legendary is cosmetic and convenience but ascended is absolutely necessary for fractal content.

Also there have been gear grinds if you play condi. First rampagers/dire to sinister from season 2 achievements now to viper from hot maps/raids/ and hot story.

This is in addition to new runes and sigils that have power creeped as well.

FlashAhAhh.4307:

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played.

Then you haven’t played many games at ALL!!! In other games farming gear is ALL you do and you never, ever finish.

Here is why GW2 is the LEAST grindy game I’ve ever played.

1. Top gear doesn’t change, once you have top tier, it will ALWAYS be top tier.

2. You can play 99% of the highest level content very competently with the THIRD highest tier of gear.

3. Ascended gear is actually pretty easy to get but is designed that it CANNOT just be bought. You have to play the game to earn it and it takes a little time BUT while you are farming it you can still play with 99% effectiveness in exotic gear.

You can absolutely buy ascended gear. Buy gems, convert to gold, buy mats, level crafting, craft ascended.

It was casual at launch. But shortly after (a few months) they introduced Ascended gear; it’s been steadily more and more grindy up to the present, where everything they introduce now must have grind.

Alone.1784:

FlashAhAhh.4307:

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played.

Then you haven’t played many games at ALL!!! In other games farming gear is ALL you do and you never, ever finish.

Here is why GW2 is the LEAST grindy game I’ve ever played.

1. Top gear doesn’t change, once you have top tier, it will ALWAYS be top tier.

2. You can play 99% of the highest level content very competently with the THIRD highest tier of gear.

3. Ascended gear is actually pretty easy to get but is designed that it CANNOT just be bought. You have to play the game to earn it and it takes a little time BUT while you are farming it you can still play with 99% effectiveness in exotic gear.

You can absolutely buy ascended gear. Buy gems, convert to gold, buy mats, level crafting, craft ascended.

You need the recipes which cost Laurels and Karma.

The fact that I can take lengthy breaks from the game and come back and still play every single one of my characters in almost every part of the game is why I think the game is extremely casual friendly. Being able to jump in on any of them and just play without having to worry about obtaining the next tier of gear that was released while I was away is HUGE.
Sure there are grindy aspects to the game, but those don’t stop me from enjoying 99% of the things I do.

Psst… don’t listen to the fans here. It is easy to search for honest unbiased comments on the web about Nerf War 2, I mean Guild War 2.

This game is for hardcore gamers only. To fully enjoy the game, you’ll need full ascended gears and legendaries. If you are prepared to grind for at least 5-8 hours every day and for one to two years , this game is for you.

PVE
If you enjoy being killed by mobs, play GW2… or better still, buy HoT.
If you enjoy killing mobs, play something else.

PVP
Refer to above but replace mobs with certain class players

WvW
GOOD LUCK

Btw, I am downloading D3 as I post here, lots of positive feedbacks on that game after the developers listened and acted on gameplay improvements.

I stopped playing GW2 for about two years and came back to play for about a month now. Yep, nothing has changed (enjoyment wise) only more nerfs, especially visual nerfs on skills :/

Conncept.7638:

That’s what they said up until less than six months before they added ascended gear…

And they’ve held off on adding a new tier after ascended for the last what, 3 years?

At most, they’ve added ‘better’ stat spreads from HoT zones but even then there’s only something like one combination that’s actually really better (Viper’s>Sinister) and even that’s dependent on your class.

Mil.3562:

This game is for hardcore gamers only. To fully enjoy the game, you’ll need full ascended gears and legendaries. If you are prepared to grind for at least 5-8 hours every day and for one to two years , this game is for you.

But you don’t need to grind 5-8 hours every day for one to two years for Ascended gear. ._.

Because you dont have many things to do when you hit max lvl.Other games have mounts to collect,companions,pets,trasmogrification gear to farm,trinity,different tiers of gear from many different dungeons/raids to collect etc.In gw2 the only good things to get are only a few and need a lot of time to farm.

The term “casual” has been co-opted as a nicer way of saying “lazy” or “low skill”. Funny enough, the word is often used with the opposite meaning here. Much of the time , “casual” means that it will just take a long time, but it will be easy for anyone no matter of skill/attention but simply possessing the patience to devote the time to get whatever they want.

Unfortunate for those of us using the old version of the term, as we by far prefer to play the game on our schedule, not having to play the game on the game’s schedule (looking at you, every open world map in HoT, and the incredible amount of map currencies that are required for the rewards).

Also people should really stop using the excuse “there are other games that exist that are worse than GW2’s grind”. Just because there exists something terrible, is not a reason why another thing should be given a free pass. If you make these sorts of comparisons, then compare GW1 and GW2.

Surbrus.6942:

The term “casual” has been co-opted as a nicer way of saying “lazy” or “low skill”. Funny enough, the word is often used with the opposite meaning here. Much of the time , “casual” means that it will just take a long time, but it will be easy for anyone no matter of skill/attention but simply possessing the patience to devote the time to get whatever they want.

Unfortunate for those of us using the old version of the term, as we by far prefer to play the game on our schedule, not having to play the game on the game’s schedule (looking at you, every open world map in HoT, and the incredible amount of map currencies that are required for the rewards).

Also people should really stop using the excuse “there are other games that exist that are worse than GW2’s grind”. Just because there exists something terrible, is not a reason why another thing should be given a free pass. If you make these sorts of comparisons, then compare GW1 and GW2.

Yes Guild Wars 1 had no grind. There was no luxon or kurzick track. There was no lightbringer track. There was no deldrimar track. There was no drinking title. There was no need to farm at all, because everyone has a mini polar bear, right?

You’re right about not giving Guild Wars 2 a free pass, but that has nothing to do with there being plenty of grind in GW 1.

Th most grindy game you played?? Ok… It’s the least grindy Mmo I ever played.

The only things I would call “Grind” in GW2 is:

1. Guild Hall upgrades (the 50k~ elder wood logs and mithril ore required for upgrades is ridiculous)
and
2. Crafting

Everything else you’re thinking of is referred to as “farming”. Not “grinding”.

Mil.3562:

Psst… don’t listen to the fans here. It is easy to search for honest unbiased comments on the web about Nerf War 2, I mean Guild War 2.

This game is for hardcore gamers only. To fully enjoy the game, you’ll need full ascended gears and legendaries. If you are prepared to grind for at least 5-8 hours every day and for one to two years , this game is for you.

My nine year old plays…. for a couple of hours a week…. no problems.

Calling this game difficult is insane.

Because it is, for the most part casual.

Save a few economic decisions that hamper it being even more casual.

As someone said above, you confuse grinding with farming. “Grinding” essentially means that you need to keep killing mobs/mine/cast a skill in a mind numbing repetition in order to advance a level or a skill. Farming is killing mobs, doing quests, etc, in order to obtain drops that are necessary to accomplish something (either a good item, or the drop might be the object).

I think the problem is best way to farm in GW2 is to grind the same thing over and over again. In fact once you find the most efficient farm, you stay there forever, for example silver waste.

In other mmorpg you at least change what you are grinding once in a while. For example grind 100 hours in one area, and once you get stronger you grind in another area.

Still feels pretty casual to me but I might still be numbed to grinding after playing original Everquest for like…ever

Casual gameplay forever. Feels good, man

this game isn’t grindy
my 1st year I played only wvw , yeah wvw has less rewards & managed to get 3-4 super expensive exotic skins.

then I took 3 months break & player for another 1 year& 3 months
now I have :
4 full ascended armor set
5 ascended staff /2gs/ 2 hammer/2 dagger/2 scepter/1 lb/ 1sb/1axe/1 pistol/
4 legendary [took me 2 months each & trust me I never got a pre drop]
2 aether/ azuraflame/volcanus
even gifted axe pre to somebody

yes I managed to do all that in 1year & 3 months it was easy & now I’m 1/2 way to astralaria, had almost all mats for it then sold all that for transferring server have to start from scratch again.

yes I don’t play more than 5 hours a day.
& i don’t have trading skill what ever I sell in tp is direct buy price.

what problem you guys are facing is : oh look legendary I need that> looks at the requirement> holy kitten too much thing to get > 250 of each mats wtf? >I don’t have time to play but I need the legendary right now> kitten this kitten> this game grindy..

what i do is keep playing constantly, after every month I looks at my material slot to see how much I got > if 200+ mats on few types > decides it’s time for another legendary & baam I have another

what makes this game casual is that you don’t need ascended for enjoying 90% content.
exotic is just fine & it’s way too easy to get exotics.
instead you guys want is getting free legendary without playing.

what is happening with you is : got full exo >goes exploring>spam all skills are not on cd> dies because have no idea how to dodge > kitten it mobs are too hard>kitten this game is too hard for casual player.

laokoko.7403:

I think the problem is best way to farm in GW2 is to grind the same thing over and over again. In fact once you find the most efficient farm, you stay there forever, for example silver waste.

In other mmorpg you at least change what you are grinding once in a while. For example grind 100 hours in one area, and once you get stronger you grind in another area.

To me this is the very difference between playing hard core and playing casual. Why would a casual player optimize their gold per hour? Why is that even the agenda of a casual player.

I want to make the bat shoulder piece from Halloween. I got the Halloween stuff to make it that I needed, mostly bought from the TP pretty cheaply. But I’m nowhere near making it. I’m saving up to make linseed oil. I don’t want to buy it, so I’m farming flax. That means sometimes, I get over to the flax farm when I think about it. Maybe it’ll take me another six months to make it, but so what. I’m casual. I’m not running any races.

If you think farming the Silverwastes over and over to make gold is a casual activity, you and I have VERY different ideas about the nature of casual game play.

I agree with Vayne here. I’m as casual as a Hawaiian shirt and I’m broke as a joke because I can’t be friggin’ bothered to make money. I just want to wander around Tyria doing Good Deeds and clobbering stuff with a hammer. Carrying all my stuff in a hobo bindle gets old sometimes but whatcha gonna do?

Running races? Good lord, how horrifying

Tbh as soon as you learn some farm routes / run guaranteed rich veins etc once per day which takes like 20 minutes for Iron, 20 minutes for Platinum etc, you can clear a LOT with an hour worth of work. I get really discouraged when I see what I will need for my next tier but at least grinding metals is a breeze when following those lists.

^

Yah, I have a farm route that I try to do, most days. I hit certain maps at one spot each where there are usually more nodes and refine and sell what I harvest. It’s a decent income, if a little boring.

Dragonax.6487:

And now with HoT out, even more grind are needed just to unlock the new specializations

Seriously?

If you have done many Core Tyria Hero Challenges that took you 15 minutes, if not it took you about 1-2 hours.

Shylock.4653:

Dragonax.6487:

And now with HoT out, even more grind are needed just to unlock the new specializations

Seriously?

If you have done many Core Tyria Hero Challenges that took you 15 minutes, if not it took you about 1-2 hours.

I’m on 4/17 all through WvW, wouldn’t be so bad if Elites were account bound, some of us do have 3-4 of the same class

Dragonax.6487:

It’s the most grindy game I’ ever played. Almost everything top level in this game take either massive luck, lot of money or massive amount of time to get. And the most terrible thing is almost none of those require any amount of skill.

Legendary probably takes like 2 years to get unless you are either extremely lucky, play > 10 hours a day , or pay $500. Even Ascended would take like 1-2 months for casual players , 3-4 months for the armor sets. And now with HoT out, even more grind are needed just to unlock the new specializations (which should be unlocked freely after purchase ).

When I compared it with a truly casual game like Warframe for ex: It took me 3 weeks to obtain top level gears. After 5 weeks, with a bit of luck and trading skills, I was able to get Frost Prime, which was by far the rarest, most valuable piece of gear in the game at that time, matched only by some of the (really good ) stuffs that no longer drop for several years.That’s what I would call Casual/

GW2 ist not even close to being the most grindy MMO I ever played.
It is also much more casual friendly than other games where you have to PvP or do very hard PvE to have a chance at getting the best gear. There are also miles between the effectiveness of good gear and top gear there. Where in this game the difference between exotics and ascended is pretty much miniscule.

You also need to consider that they have not increased levels or gear in ages. I have been using my Twilight for over three years now. Anything you achieve will be with you for ages. There is no rush, there is nothing you can’t get at a casual pace – playing the easiest content you can find.

You might actually only be talking about the “casual” amount of hours some players can spend on the game, instead.
Which is makes me wonder how few hours per week you’d consider casual. The two year requirement for a legendary makes one think you play this game for about 1-2 hours per week. In which case, my your example, I’d say Warframe pretty much hands out the best gear freely.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

^

Yah, I have a farm route that I try to do, most days. I hit certain maps at one spot each where there are usually more nodes and refine and sell what I harvest. It’s a decent income, if a little boring.

I just follow guaranteed rich iron veins and platinum veins (+ picking up anything I see on my minimap on my way to the nodes) on 2 chars when I have the time. Once per day. after 3 days I’ve got between 60-80g depending on prices, and I never spend more than 40 minutes per char each run. I’d say that’s pretty decent.

sephiroth.4217:

I’m on 4/17 all through WvW, wouldn’t be so bad if Elites were account bound, some of us do have 3-4 of the same class

I have 26 characters and know that problem. A better solution for altaholics would be nice.

It’s advertised and begins as casual because more people with buy it and use the store.
It’s grindy at the top so the grind-lovers will buy it and use the store.

eg: Why does Tide say “Faster Acting!” when Arm&Hammer works more quickly? lol

Vayne.8563:

laokoko.7403:

I think the problem is best way to farm in GW2 is to grind the same thing over and over again. In fact once you find the most efficient farm, you stay there forever, for example silver waste.

In other mmorpg you at least change what you are grinding once in a while. For example grind 100 hours in one area, and once you get stronger you grind in another area.

To me this is the very difference between playing hard core and playing casual. Why would a casual player optimize their gold per hour? Why is that even the agenda of a casual player.

I want to make the bat shoulder piece from Halloween. I got the Halloween stuff to make it that I needed, mostly bought from the TP pretty cheaply. But I’m nowhere near making it. I’m saving up to make linseed oil. I don’t want to buy it, so I’m farming flax. That means sometimes, I get over to the flax farm when I think about it. Maybe it’ll take me another six months to make it, but so what. I’m casual. I’m not running any races.

If you think farming the Silverwastes over and over to make gold is a casual activity, you and I have VERY different ideas about the nature of casual game play.

Probably why some people felt Guild Wars 2 is the grindest game ever. They spent their entire time optimizing gold per hour.

I’m a farmer myself. But I still try to avoid farms that are too boring.

I try to find things that are fun(or at least less boring) and make money at the same time.