Guild Wars 2

I started on my quest to make the Nevermore Legendary weapon and half way though the Ravenswood Staff I am reflecting on how much I have spent in saved materials and had to grind for supplies. By now I could almost have and a precursor for an other legendary.

Did Anet make this so expensive. I am torn now looking at how much I have lost in material and the major grind ahead.
What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

A legendary is meant to take time to get, not something you can just make. A legendary is a thing you make to have a long turn goal and to get bragging rights. It’s not like stats or anything are better then ascended anyway.

Just to compare it to crafting The Legend (the other legendary staff precursor): It’d cost around 1k gold to craft The Legend, and the current highest buy order for it is around 1400 gold. And it looks like crafting The Raven Staff costs around 1100g, give or take a few. So, it’s not like this one is worse than the other more expensive legendaries.

That being said, I too get annoyed by the extreme amount of ascended mats required for that first tier of crafting.

Angelica Dream.7103:

I started on my quest to make the Nevermore Legendary weapon and half way though the Ravenswood Staff I am reflecting on how much I have spent in saved materials and had to grind for supplies. By now I could almost have and a precursor for an other legendary.

Did Anet make this so expensive. I am torn now looking at how much I have lost in material and the major grind ahead.
What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

that’s not a grind, it’s a farm. not the same thing.
protip: to get anything worth-while in Guild Wars 2, you’ll need to farm something.

They name of those types of weapons should tell you that they were not meant to be easy to obtain. Legendaries are meant to take lots of time to complete. Everyone would have one if they were easy or cheap to obtain.

I don’t understand the complaint. It isn’t grinding, it is working toward something you want. No one needs a legendary, it is just a status/skin desire. If you want easy make an ascended weapon. Same stat level. You just can’t change the stats for free on ascended weapons/armor.

Think of the cost invested in HOT legendary collection equivalent to buying a precursor off the TP. Crafting ravenwood staff is almost similar cost to “The Legend”, might differ a 100-200g.

Essentially you are crafting the precursor through the 4 step collection.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Just to compare it to crafting The Legend (the other legendary staff precursor): It’d cost around 1k gold to craft The Legend, and the current highest buy order for it is around 1400 gold. And it looks like crafting The Raven Staff costs around 1100g, give or take a few. So, it’s not like this one is worse than the other more expensive legendaries.

That being said, I too get annoyed by the extreme amount of ascended mats required for that first tier of crafting.

Eesh, I could never imagine having that much gold on hand – I struggle just to get up to 300g (only have 260g right now). Does it mean I would have to farm in a map or game mode I loathe with a passion just to get something I’m interested in? Very counter-intuitive, and unrealistic too. It makes me depressed to see many things I will never have because I don’t have the time, gold, or skill to do so. It was an annoying struggle just to get Mawdrey, the only “special” crafted item I have.

I’m going through crafting Bolt right now (well Zap experiment really) and yea its a bit painful to keep checking and see just how many materials I am missing for just the first two swords in the line (Zap experiment and perfected sword). But at the same time I like it because it will make it all that more worth it when I finally finish it.

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

May I ask what cool, special weapons/armors are available out there that us non-grinders are able to obtain? It just feels like all of the cool stuff is meant for the few who have the time and money to do it.

Moyayuki.3619:

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

May I ask what cool, special weapons/armors are available out there that us non-grinders are able to obtain? It just feels like all of the cool stuff is meant for the few who have the time and money to do it.

All of the elite specialization weapons are very easy to get. For that matter, many of the black lion skins on the trading post don’t even go for that much gold anymore.

There are plenty of skins offered over the years that everyone could go for including carapace armor that came with living story season 2.

All the dungeon armor and weapons are casual. Fractal weapons are fairly casual too.

There are far more casual armor and weapon skins than high end ones. But people get them faster and then have nothing to do. This is the value of skins that take longer to get.

BattleRattle.5420:

A legendary is meant to take time to get, not something you can just make. A legendary is a thing you make to have a long turn goal and to get bragging rights. It’s not like stats or anything are better then ascended anyway.

I really disagree. It could take a year and I would not care if they just made if fun to do. While a legendary should take time and effort. There are many better ways than grinding out forging every night for hours. For example minor goals like:

Win 100 0PVP matches
Take 100 Camps in WVW
Kill 100 Dolyacks in WvW

I actually liked collecting the 500 geodes in the desert.

What I am getting at is do actual game activities, than running the same map over and over for months.

Angelica Dream.7103:

Did Anet make this so expensive. I am torn now looking at how much I have lost in material and the major grind ahead.
What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

Grinding is when you log in after buying an expansion and suddenly your character is 5 levels below max and those 5 levels will take longer than the first 60 did. Your BiS gear is now two grades below and to get back to the top you need to complete two raids and go through five ranks of reputation with three different factions.

Nevermore is a pretty skin for your staff. It doesn’t offer any significant advantage (changing stats at will is not worth another 1000 gold) just bragging rights. Most MMOs reset your “progress” every year or so to keep you paying and playing.

Angelica Dream.7103:

What I am getting at is do actual game activities, than running the same map over and over for months.

I have four Legendary weapons and I never did anything over and over again for months. Nevermore is the only new weapon and the Amalgamated gemstones where a bit tedious in the forge, but they have fixed that now with the 10x recipe. There are so many ways to accumulate wealth in this game so go do something else if your tired of one particular map.

tolunart.2095:

Angelica Dream.7103:

Did Anet make this so expensive. I am torn now looking at how much I have lost in material and the major grind ahead.
What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

Grinding is when you log in after buying an expansion and suddenly your character is 5 levels below max and those 5 levels will take longer than the first 60 did. Your BiS gear is now two grades below and to get back to the top you need to complete two raids and go through five ranks of reputation with three different factions.

Nevermore is a pretty skin for your staff. It doesn’t offer any significant advantage (changing stats at will is not worth another 1000 gold) just bragging rights. Most MMOs reset your “progress” every year or so to keep you paying and playing.

how is that different than buying the expansion and having to grind masteries to participate in the new content? Or grinding ascendeds to partake in raids? Actually vertical progression grind is less bad than grind currently present in HoT.

On the one hand, Legendaries are an enormous grind (yes, farm = grind if you don’t like it). On the other hand everyone wouldn’t want Legendaries as much if they weren’t special and hard to get. Since I don’t enjoy grinding, I’m not “working toward” any legendary. I figure in a couple of years I might finally have one just by playing or I might not. Someday if I find myself really disappointed that I can’t get at least 1 nice thing like this without grinding, I’ll go play another game.

Moyayuki.3619:

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

May I ask what cool, special weapons/armors are available out there that us non-grinders are able to obtain? It just feels like all of the cool stuff is meant for the few who have the time and money to do it.

Are you asking “what special loot can I get for doing nothing special”?

The vast majority of the skins in the game are relatively cheap and easy to acquire. The “special” stuff is special specifically because of its rarity or difficulty to acquire.

Of course, the real problem is the cash shop, as the vast majority of skins added to the game are cash shop skins that can’t enter the economy without somebody buying gems.

Legendary crafting was never intended to make legendaries cheaper. It was intended to create a direct path for you to slowly craft the legendary start to finish without buying anything at all so that your only option isn’t just farming gold or sacrificing a goat to RNGesus for a precursor.

Angelica Dream.7103:

I started on my quest to make the Nevermore Legendary weapon and half way though the Ravenswood Staff I am reflecting on how much I have spent in saved materials and had to grind for supplies. By now I could almost have and a precursor for an other legendary.

Did Anet make this so expensive. I am torn now looking at how much I have lost in material and the major grind ahead.
What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

Again, they did not promise no grind. Rather, they promised no necessary grind.

Do you have to have this legendary to play the game?

No.

Therefore, it is not necessary.

Mirta.5029:

how is that different than buying the expansion and having to grind masteries to participate in the new content? Or grinding ascendeds to partake in raids? Actually vertical progression grind is less bad than grind currently present in HoT.

For the first couple of years Anet kept saying, we don’t want to do an expansion, we’re releasing all this content for FREE and not doing what every other MMO does with gear resets and raids and such. But players kept demanding “take my money!” and wanted the traditional MMO stuff so they stopped giving stuff out for free and here you go.

tolunart.2095:

Mirta.5029:

how is that different than buying the expansion and having to grind masteries to participate in the new content? Or grinding ascendeds to partake in raids? Actually vertical progression grind is less bad than grind currently present in HoT.

For the first couple of years Anet kept saying, we don’t want to do an expansion, we’re releasing all this content for FREE and not doing what every other MMO does with gear resets and raids and such. But players kept demanding “take my money!” and wanted the traditional MMO stuff so they stopped giving stuff out for free and here you go.

Not saying that players did not ask for this, or that there wasn’t reasons for it, just that HoT is no different than a traditional MMO expansion in how much effort you have to put in to partake in expansion’s content.

Mirta.5029:

tolunart.2095:

Mirta.5029:

how is that different than buying the expansion and having to grind masteries to participate in the new content? Or grinding ascendeds to partake in raids? Actually vertical progression grind is less bad than grind currently present in HoT.

For the first couple of years Anet kept saying, we don’t want to do an expansion, we’re releasing all this content for FREE and not doing what every other MMO does with gear resets and raids and such. But players kept demanding “take my money!” and wanted the traditional MMO stuff so they stopped giving stuff out for free and here you go.

Not saying that players did not ask for this, or that there wasn’t reasons for it, just that HoT is no different than a traditional MMO expansion in how much effort you have to put in to partake in expansion’s content.

Exactly. Anet said “we’re looking into different ways to release content besides packaging it as an expansion.” The overwhelming response was that they wanted it to be a more traditional MMO so this is what they gave the players.

Except, no new tiers of gear, and no level cap increase. Just alternate progression methods for those who are into that sort of thing. Some players just want a bigger hamster wheel to run in.

Moyayuki.3619:

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

May I ask what cool, special weapons/armors are available out there that us non-grinders are able to obtain? It just feels like all of the cool stuff is meant for the few who have the time and money to do it.

While some of them can be a bit of a grind to get the materials, its nothing like the grind for legendaries, and in most cases is far easier (if not slightly more expensive) than grinding the materials for ascended gear too. But all of the unique exotics that were released into the game before ascended gear would be an option. Personally I think these are some of the coolest skins in the game. I love legendaries, but I see them everywhere and I don’t see nearly as many of these unique exotics being towed around.

I’ve seen so many Twilight/Dawn and Dreamer carriers running around that they have become more annoying than impressive. Other Legendaries are less common but I’ve seen a lot of Bifrost lately too. There are lots of cool exotics you can create for less than 50g of materials, and several more that only require one Gift instead of map completion/hours of WvW/dozens of expensive mats etc. and no precursor. Create one that you like and craft an Ascended to apply the skin to and you have something as strong as a Legendary but not nearly as hard to acquire – and less annoying to your fellow players too.

OriOri.8724:

Moyayuki.3619:

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

May I ask what cool, special weapons/armors are available out there that us non-grinders are able to obtain? It just feels like all of the cool stuff is meant for the few who have the time and money to do it.

While some of them can be a bit of a grind to get the materials, its nothing like the grind for legendaries, and in most cases is far easier (if not slightly more expensive) than grinding the materials for ascended gear too. But all of the unique exotics that were released into the game before ascended gear would be an option. Personally I think these are some of the coolest skins in the game. I love legendaries, but I see them everywhere and I don’t see nearly as many of these unique exotics being towed around.

How is ascended gear acquired? I know that there were some special armor skins from the Karma vendors in one of the Orr maps, but that’s the extent of my knowledge, since I haven’t come across any others. I usually just play Personal Story/map completion on my many alts, so I tend to be out of the loop about some things.

Moyayuki.3619:

OriOri.8724:

Moyayuki.3619:

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

May I ask what cool, special weapons/armors are available out there that us non-grinders are able to obtain? It just feels like all of the cool stuff is meant for the few who have the time and money to do it.

While some of them can be a bit of a grind to get the materials, its nothing like the grind for legendaries, and in most cases is far easier (if not slightly more expensive) than grinding the materials for ascended gear too. But all of the unique exotics that were released into the game before ascended gear would be an option. Personally I think these are some of the coolest skins in the game. I love legendaries, but I see them everywhere and I don’t see nearly as many of these unique exotics being towed around.

How is ascended gear acquired? I know that there were some special armor skins from the Karma vendors in one of the Orr maps, but that’s the extent of my knowledge, since I haven’t come across any others. I usually just play Personal Story/map completion on my many alts, so I tend to be out of the loop about some things.

There are actually quite a few different ways to acquire ascended gear (mostly dependent on what type of gear it is [armor/weapons/accessories]).

For accessories, you get them from story achievements, fractals (do fractal dailies for pristine fractal relics), laurel venders (in a way, cheaper in WvW), PvP chests, WvW chests, and raids to name a few.

For amor/weapons, the mainstay of obtaining them is through crafting. However, not only are they timegated, they are quite expensive (so just stick with exotic gear and slowly get one piece of ascended gear at a time [longterm goals!]). But one can also obtain them from some achievements, fractal drops, PvP chests, WvW chests, raids, Tequatl, Triple Trouble, and collections to name what I remember.

Razor.9872:

Moyayuki.3619:

OriOri.8724:

Moyayuki.3619:

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

May I ask what cool, special weapons/armors are available out there that us non-grinders are able to obtain? It just feels like all of the cool stuff is meant for the few who have the time and money to do it.

While some of them can be a bit of a grind to get the materials, its nothing like the grind for legendaries, and in most cases is far easier (if not slightly more expensive) than grinding the materials for ascended gear too. But all of the unique exotics that were released into the game before ascended gear would be an option. Personally I think these are some of the coolest skins in the game. I love legendaries, but I see them everywhere and I don’t see nearly as many of these unique exotics being towed around.

How is ascended gear acquired? I know that there were some special armor skins from the Karma vendors in one of the Orr maps, but that’s the extent of my knowledge, since I haven’t come across any others. I usually just play Personal Story/map completion on my many alts, so I tend to be out of the loop about some things.

There are actually quite a few different ways to acquire ascended gear (mostly dependent on what type of gear it is [armor/weapons/accessories]).

For accessories, you get them from story achievements, fractals (do fractal dailies for pristine fractal relics), laurel venders (in a way, cheaper in WvW), PvP chests, WvW chests, and raids to name a few.

For amor/weapons, the mainstay of obtaining them is through crafting. However, not only are they timegated, they are quite expensive (so just stick with exotic gear and slowly get one piece of ascended gear at a time [longterm goals!]). But one can also obtain them from some achievements, fractal drops, PvP chests, WvW chests, raids, Tequatl, Triple Trouble, and collections to name what I remember.

Thanks for the information!

OP, im going after the legendary, and im doing it by gathering etc. Its going to take a long time and cost a fortune, but what il get out of that is an item that takes work – win for me, thats what im after in a RPG, long term goals and rewards. I could equally go ahead and buy a legendary for far less gold from the auction house – but what is the point of that!

Moyayuki.3619:

RoseofGilead.8907:

Just to compare it to crafting The Legend (the other legendary staff precursor): It’d cost around 1k gold to craft The Legend, and the current highest buy order for it is around 1400 gold. And it looks like crafting The Raven Staff costs around 1100g, give or take a few. So, it’s not like this one is worse than the other more expensive legendaries.

That being said, I too get annoyed by the extreme amount of ascended mats required for that first tier of crafting.

Eesh, I could never imagine having that much gold on hand – I struggle just to get up to 300g (only have 260g right now). Does it mean I would have to farm in a map or game mode I loathe with a passion just to get something I’m interested in? Very counter-intuitive, and unrealistic too. It makes me depressed to see many things I will never have because I don’t have the time, gold, or skill to do so. It was an annoying struggle just to get Mawdrey, the only “special” crafted item I have.

I know how you feel. I frequently have less than 1g in my wallet, and I think of 30g as a lot. In spite of that I made The Dreamer a while back which involved spending nearly 800g on the precursor and I’m currently making The Bifrost where I’m crafting the precursor (as noted above this costs about 1,000g).

Neither of them has required farming a map or game mode I don’t like (fortunately I like both PvE and WvW) or doing anything so many times over that I get sick of it. I got the 800g for The Lover without doing anything I didn’t want to do – I just played as normal, saved up all the gold I got, sold crafting materials I didn’t need and didn’t buy anything I didn’t need. It took me 7 months, but that was ok because in that time I was working on all the other stuff I needed for the finished legendary. I’m doing the same this time around.

If you can get 300g then all you need to do is repeat that without spending the first lot and you’ve got 600g. Do it again and you’ve got 900g and can almost afford the most expensive precursors on the TP (most of them are much cheaper than that). It seems daunting if you compare the overall total to what you normally have, but it’s not that bad once you get going.

One thing which really helps for me is making a list of everything I need so I can plan ahead. For example right now I need to craft 250 Basic Elder Wood Staves and collect 100 Obsidian Shards. The next steps are going to require 100 Karka Shells and 25 Passion Flowers so I’m combining the whole lot by playing in Southsun for a bit every day collecting shells and flowers, harvesting elder wood and getting karma from events which I will trade for Obsidian.

I’m also saving all my copper ore and iron ore (as ore, not ingots) because I know I will need that later on and I’ve even gotten as far ahead of myself as doing the Arah reward track in WvW because I know I’ll need the tokens for the final stage of the legendary.

Whether or not all that effort is worth it is highly subjective. For me there was never any question about getting the Dreamer. I’ve never even seen a weapon as absurd as a bow that shoots unicorns before so there was no way I could pass it up. The Bifrost isn’t quite as much of a ‘must have’ for me, but having made 1 legendary I’ve found it’s not that bad so the effort absolutely seems worth it this time around.

Moyayuki.3619:

ElectricGoat.8253:

Just get ascended gear or man up and stop complaining.

Was that directed at me? Even if it wasn’t, there’s no need to be toxic.

Agreed this is a civil a discussion. Not an event for you to be rude

Elric Of Melnibone.4781:

Angelica Dream.7103:

What I am getting at is do actual game activities, than running the same map over and over for months.

I have four Legendary weapons and I never did anything over and over again for months. Nevermore is the only new weapon and the Amalgamated gemstones where a bit tedious in the forge, but they have fixed that now with the 10x recipe. There are so many ways to accumulate wealth in this game so go do something else if your tired of one particular map.

Elric, Enlighten me. Maybe I am doing this all wring. How can I make it more fun or not so receptive? Also what is the 10x recipe?

Since legendaries are basically skins, the short answer = no, it’s not worth it to many many people. Like myself.

Having said that, ANET didn’t try to make Nevermore so expensive. But ANET made the mistake of tying its crafting cost to TP prices, which are influenced by players.

Now Nevermore costs twice to make in terms of gold value, as it did 6 months ago. As in it takes a LOT longer to farm one to completion.

All for a legendary that hits no harder than a common ascended weapon.

I really hope they rethink legendaries on many levels, mainly their character doll attachment for looks only use, and the costs tied to TP player manipulated pricing.

Angelica Dream.7103:

Moyayuki.3619:

ElectricGoat.8253:

Just get ascended gear or man up and stop complaining.

Was that directed at me? Even if it wasn’t, there’s no need to be toxic.

Agreed this is a civil a discussion. Not an event for you to be rude

Telling someone to man up is technically not rude, if people wherent so stubborned it’d goot advice many younger people need to learn.

CrusaderMichael.9245:

Since legendaries are basically skins, the short answer = no, it’s not worth it to many many people. Like myself.

Having said that, ANET didn’t try to make Nevermore so expensive. But ANET made the mistake of tying its crafting cost to TP prices, which are influenced by players.

Now Nevermore costs twice to make in terms of gold value, as it did 6 months ago. As in it takes a LOT longer to farm one to completion.

All for a legendary that hits no harder than a common ascended weapon.

I really hope they rethink legendaries on many levels, mainly their character doll attachment for looks only use, and the costs tied to TP player manipulated pricing.

That’s all legendary weapons are supposed to be: fancy skin and slight QoL for stats. Anything beyond that and that’s not what legendary weapons are supposed to be.

What is it with people thinking (unless you are able) that legendaries takes a matter of hours or weeks.. and not months like their meant to.
It’s a journey over time for end game, not something you pick up on the way home from work.

Sorry that you guys think im being toxic and rude by telling OP to get to work if he wants legendary and if he thinks legendary takes too long he can go for ascended. That’s really all OP can do other than complain, because that’s all there is. I call it like I see it.

HardRider.2980:

What is it with people thinking (unless you are able) that legendaries takes a matter of hours or weeks.. and not months like their meant to.
It’s a journey over time for end game, not something you pick up on the way home from work.

@HardRider

Where did you get that? I even said I would not mind a year journey.
So let me try again…
I just think Anet missed the mark. Just get creative and make it a journey. Not just a bad version of Farmville.

Same goes for ElectricGoat. Look spending a year of every night play is not being lazy. i just thing a game should be fun. Make getting a legendary a.. Well legendary experience.

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

Wow, i actually agree with Vayne in this thread. One minor disagreement – you kinda do need ascended gear if you are super serious about WvW.

Moyayuki.3619:

Razor.9872:

Moyayuki.3619:

OriOri.8724:

Moyayuki.3619:

Vayne.8563:

Anet never promised there would be no grind. They did say there would be no grind for BIS gear. Obviously even that’s questionable with ascended weapons which were meant to be a longer term goal but you absolutely don’t need a legendary weapon. It’s an optional feature.

It’s something put into the game to give people who want to grind, something to work towards. Some people like and need that.

No required grind is very different than no grind. No grind for BIS gear is very different from no grind.

Even ascended, you don’t need them to play the game, except for the highest level fractals.

May I ask what cool, special weapons/armors are available out there that us non-grinders are able to obtain? It just feels like all of the cool stuff is meant for the few who have the time and money to do it.

While some of them can be a bit of a grind to get the materials, its nothing like the grind for legendaries, and in most cases is far easier (if not slightly more expensive) than grinding the materials for ascended gear too. But all of the unique exotics that were released into the game before ascended gear would be an option. Personally I think these are some of the coolest skins in the game. I love legendaries, but I see them everywhere and I don’t see nearly as many of these unique exotics being towed around.

How is ascended gear acquired? I know that there were some special armor skins from the Karma vendors in one of the Orr maps, but that’s the extent of my knowledge, since I haven’t come across any others. I usually just play Personal Story/map completion on my many alts, so I tend to be out of the loop about some things.

There are actually quite a few different ways to acquire ascended gear (mostly dependent on what type of gear it is [armor/weapons/accessories]).

For accessories, you get them from story achievements, fractals (do fractal dailies for pristine fractal relics), laurel venders (in a way, cheaper in WvW), PvP chests, WvW chests, and raids to name a few.

For amor/weapons, the mainstay of obtaining them is through crafting. However, not only are they timegated, they are quite expensive (so just stick with exotic gear and slowly get one piece of ascended gear at a time [longterm goals!]). But one can also obtain them from some achievements, fractal drops, PvP chests, WvW chests, raids, Tequatl, Triple Trouble, and collections to name what I remember.

Thanks for the information!

You should go to the bank and look at the wardrobe tab, see if theres anything you like, and just search up how to get it if you like it. Its helpful in picking what you want with the preview and all

vesica tempestas.1563:

OP, im going after the legendary, and im doing it by gathering etc. Its going to take a long time and cost a fortune, but what il get out of that is an item that takes work – win for me, thats what im after in a RPG, long term goals and rewards. I could equally go ahead and buy a legendary for far less gold from the auction house – but what is the point of that!

^ this so much. I finished Nevermore last week and yeah, it took me a lot of SW farming but I really wanted the skin for my Necro. I mained one in GW1, her first gold staff was a Raven Staff so I had my heart set on Nevermore from the second I saw it. However, unlike GW1, I didn’t have to rely on RNG for a skin (or worse; getting the skin but incompatible stat requirements). I was able to craft it myself over time. It only becomes expensive/tedious if you try to rush it and the journey to get Nevermore was really enjoyable for me. I love my devoted raven sitting on my staff that I reared from a chick. I was lucky enough to get my Gift of Battle before the change to a WvW track, but I’m currently working on Twilight and after about 20 hours of EotM (with the WvW reward track tavern buff), I almost have my next Gift of Battle. And honestly (don’t care if I get hate for this), I like that I’ve had to step outside of PvE to get my next Legendary as it makes it feel a greater accomplishment and more worthy of that Legendary status. Plus it means I’m actually ranking up in WvW for my bloody autoloot.

But yeah, if you just want the stats/infusion slots, as others have said, ascended is your best option.

Angelica Dream.7103:

Elric, Enlighten me. Maybe I am doing this all wring. How can I make it more fun or not so receptive? Also what is the 10x recipe?

The new recipe is 5 ectos plus three stacks of 25 ‘orbs/crests’ each. You get 10 or more gemstones out. It’s also slightly cheaper than the single recipe.

I am not sure what parts of the game you like/dislike but there are tons of dungeons to do, fractals and lots of areas/events/bosses. Salvage pretty much all of your loot, sell materials you don’t need for crafting. Get your magic find up as high as possible to boost your rare/exotic drop rates. Get the magic find amulet, eat your Omnomberry Bars, get the guild buff for magic find and be sure to rotate activities so you don’t fall prey to diminishing returns. Check the sell price of Exotics and sell if over a gold or salvage with BLC kits to get ecto/dark matter out.

Watch the map rewards as they can be very nice, if they are not, shift to another map. Cursed Shore events drop tons of loot, of course Silver wastes drops lots of loot (well with shovels/keys), Dragon stand runs are fun and profitable. Crowbars drop like candy in Verdant Brink if you run around doing those events. My ranger does a run through Southsun Cove every night hitting all the Ori and Ancient nodes which drop orbs, and picking up the three blooming passiflowers. If a commander is running through you can get lots of karka shells farming the veterans.

I made a lot of coin crafting for profit, but that’s not for everyone and takes a little research. Right now you can craft the Krait weapons that Faction Provisioners are looking for as people are too lazy to craft them. That would let you turn all the wood, metal and other T5 drops you get from salvaging into even more gold. (You want to use Mystic Salvage kits for the best salvaging results or a Silver Fed Salvagomatic.) You can also craft the daily Ascended materials to craft/sell for profit but that takes a large investment to max your crafting out if you have not already.

Legendary is grind, it’s intended to be grind. It is not better than an ascended stat wise. It’s only a skin. From this perspective no it’s not worth it. I already did Astralaria and now finishing collection Nevermore III. If you don’t want to grind, don’t make it. It’s a vanity item you don’t need.

Angelica Dream.7103:

What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

That dead horse has been flogged so much now that it’s broken up into dust… like Voldemort.

Perhaps we could replace it with a Quaggan? See if people are still willing to keep flogging that.

Sarie.1630:

That dead horse has been flogged so much now that it’s broken up into dust… like Voldemort.

Perhaps we could replace it with a Quaggan? See if people are still willing to keep flogging that.

That might anger Gaile… and you don’t want to see her when she’s angry.

~EW

Sarie.1630:

Perhaps we could replace it with a Quaggan? See if people are still willing to keep flogging that.

I and others in my guild would be glad to do so :P

moar like “Never- Worth it” !

It’s totally worth it, love my Nevermore. It’s certainly my favorite. The crow is awesome as are the crows that scatter when you wield it. Raising the chick was really cool, the best example of a precursor journey. To bad there will be no more :-(.

Quick question; What are the differences in stats between exotic and legendary/ascendent items?

For me, luck has never paid off.

I have clovers, lots of exotic materials, and mat’s to make exotic weapons and hundreds of more clovers .

Arenanet’s RNG on the original precursors is a failure because it was never a measure of effort.

What frustrates me is the additional effort needed to bypass the toilet and RNG.

Sure, I could buy a precursor and be done with it but cost and effort seem way out of balance. It is not a reward for playing but a reward for lucky gamblers.

Mirta.5029:

tolunart.2095:

Angelica Dream.7103:

Did Anet make this so expensive. I am torn now looking at how much I have lost in material and the major grind ahead.
What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

Grinding is when you log in after buying an expansion and suddenly your character is 5 levels below max and those 5 levels will take longer than the first 60 did. Your BiS gear is now two grades below and to get back to the top you need to complete two raids and go through five ranks of reputation with three different factions.

Nevermore is a pretty skin for your staff. It doesn’t offer any significant advantage (changing stats at will is not worth another 1000 gold) just bragging rights. Most MMOs reset your “progress” every year or so to keep you paying and playing.

how is that different than buying the expansion and having to grind masteries to participate in the new content? Or grinding ascendeds to partake in raids? Actually vertical progression grind is less bad than grind currently present in HoT.

But if you just play the new content and use a few boosters, you’ll get the stuff you need to participate in the new content very fast. You don’t need leyline gliding to particpate in new content. You need about four mastery points to get through the story.

In reality, it’s not much grinding at all.

You CAN grind it by killing spiders over and over again, which some people did, or you could just do some adventures, do some dynamic events, do some story…because I didn’t grind anything.

I played the new zones. I got plenty of progress just playing normally without grinding. I was always doing something different.

For the record, I don’t believe grind means taking time to do something. I think grinding means having to do exactly the same thing over and over multiple times in order to make progress. Like grinding the same raid until you get the drop you want. I never had that experience in Heart of Thorns.

If you’re focused on the skill bar, you feel like you’re grinding, If you focus on events and just enjoying yourself, you don’t.

Angelica Dream.7103:

What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

Quote from Mike O’Brien (May 2012 before release):

Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.