Guild Wars 2

I am very very disappointed and slightly depressed regarding the effort / reward ratio in GW2. I have been playing for almost 5 years and during the last year I have noted that the rewards/drops/treasures/crafting has taken a turn for the horrible. After 5 years of playing, crafting, exploring, participating I have 5 ascended weapons and nothing more to show for all my efforts. Depressing. Apparently ArenaNet does not think highly of really helping players to feel good about themselves WITHOUT spending tons of money. Too bad.

you have 5 ascended weapons and you find that nothing to show for?
i got nothing stronger then exotics after playing since beta, count yourself lucky…..

The main rewards in GW2 are cosmetic – that’s how the game’s always been designed (it was the same in GW1). You’re not supposed to be constantly getting better and more powerful equipment, just things which look different and potentially nicer/more interesting. That is of course subjective, but I think there’s a wide enough variety that everyone should be able to find something they like.

Danikat.8537:

The main rewards in GW2 are cosmetic – that’s how the game’s always been designed (it was the same in GW1). You’re not supposed to be constantly getting better and more powerful equipment, just things which look different and potentially nicer/more interesting. That is of course subjective, but I think there’s a wide enough variety that everyone should be able to find something they like.

What if that, “something they like,” is best in slot gear for the various builds they like to run? Not increasingly stronger, just BIS. An average of one weapon per year does not seem particularly rewarding to me either.

Remember, ANet decided to implement a higher tier of gear, a performance increase, as part of the reward model of the game.

Not really sure why this is marked up as a question, as it doesn’t seem that you’re actually asking anything.

Anyway, personally the fact I’ve had 4/5 years enjoyment from playing the game would be enough, don’t really see the need to have something to show for my time playing it. But if during 5 years you really wanted to have some benchmark of “something to show” to feel good about yourself, be it a collection of ascended gear, or whatever, and you haven’t got anything then, I’d say that’s more down to the player rather than due to a lack or reward or “horrible” rewards/drops.

5 years of gameplay would have been plenty of time to easily craft a couple of sets of ascended gear if you had wanted to, especially as you say you’ve been crafting. Kitting out in ascended trinkets is pretty quick too, with options from various modes.

There’s a lot of rewards from various achievements, luminescent armour skin for example.
You could have used the time to build up titles, achievement points, collected skins, whatever it is that you class as having something to show for your time.

In this game you get rewards for practically everything, a lot of the times from doing very little! Lots of bosses & metas drop rares, so it’s quite easy to build up gold to buy things you like off the TP, or to put into crafting, or even to convert to gems. (especially if you’ve been doing it over 5 years). The effort / reward ratio in this game is minimal effort still gets you good rewards, just logging in each day / doing dailies will give you a tonne of rewards that build up to quite a lot over even just one year. And of course outside of PvE there’s WvW & PvP reward tracks which are pretty generous in rewards.

In terms of rewards and treasures what exactly are you expecting? For legendary stuff to appear in drops? For ascended gear to drop at a the same rate as rares? For a precursor to be a guaranteed drop of at least one a year per player?

I really don’t get the last part of your post, no matter what game mode(’s) you play, Anet has made it so that there are plenty of rewards & ways to get gold in game, and most items can be obtained in various ways, so there are plenty of options for players to work towards whatever they want. And with gold to gems, no one needs to spend money even if they want Gemstore items.

Still waiting for a precursor drop and I have played since beta. Leaves a real bad feeling in my mouth, especially when others have had several in that time.

Ashen.2907:

Danikat.8537:

The main rewards in GW2 are cosmetic – that’s how the game’s always been designed (it was the same in GW1). You’re not supposed to be constantly getting better and more powerful equipment, just things which look different and potentially nicer/more interesting. That is of course subjective, but I think there’s a wide enough variety that everyone should be able to find something they like.

What if that, “something they like,” is best in slot gear for the various builds they like to run? Not increasingly stronger, just BIS. An average of one weapon per year does not seem particularly rewarding to me either.

Remember, ANet decided to implement a higher tier of gear, a performance increase, as part of the reward model of the game.

That ‘something they like’ was specifically referring to the different styles of equipment. I didn’t want to imply that there’s a set progression to the cosmetics – that newer or harder content will always award better looking items, because as I said that’s subjective. One of my personal favourites for my main character is the noble coat – a mid level crafted piece, another is the carapace coat. I haven’t found anything in HoT or Season 3 I like as much as those two.

But even if the newest/most ‘impressive’ items aren’t right for you I think there should be something available to suit anyone. (Although we are still missing some styles, like trousers on female light armour without random holes in the sides.)

Danikat.8537:

Ashen.2907:

Danikat.8537:

The main rewards in GW2 are cosmetic – that’s how the game’s always been designed (it was the same in GW1). You’re not supposed to be constantly getting better and more powerful equipment, just things which look different and potentially nicer/more interesting. That is of course subjective, but I think there’s a wide enough variety that everyone should be able to find something they like.

What if that, “something they like,” is best in slot gear for the various builds they like to run? Not increasingly stronger, just BIS. An average of one weapon per year does not seem particularly rewarding to me either.

Remember, ANet decided to implement a higher tier of gear, a performance increase, as part of the reward model of the game.

That ‘something they like’ was specifically referring to the different styles of equipment. I didn’t want to imply that there’s a set progression to the cosmetics – that newer or harder content will always award better looking items, because as I said that’s subjective. One of my personal favourites for my main character is the noble coat – a mid level crafted piece, another is the carapace coat. I haven’t found anything in HoT or Season 3 I like as much as those two.

But even if the newest/most ‘impressive’ items aren’t right for you I think there should be something available to suit anyone. (Although we are still missing some styles, like trousers on female light armour without random holes in the sides.)

Sure, but the OP only refers to gear tier in terms of what be considers rewarding. ANet introduced an increased degree of rarity for BiS gear rewards, making it part of, and for some people the primary element of, the reward structure in game.

I do think that five pieces of equipment in five years is a bit unrewarding.

Does the OP mean 5 ascended drops excluding crafting? Because crafting is the easiest way to get the ascended items you want. Prices on certain things cost more now than they did before, but materials for crafting ascended weapons are not that difficult to gather (~12 ascended mats; either Deldrimor steel ingots or Spiritwood planks). I bet you could do one AB meta per day and get enough Mithril for the daily crafting of the metal, then spend an hour a day gathering Iron, another hour the next day gathering Platinum, another Soft wood, etc. to cover the rest of the materials.

There are even a lot of little collections you can do to earn yourself a great many ascended weapons. Elite spec collections all reward an ascended weapon, IIRC the most expensive part is the Mystic coins. You can do the Caladbolg quest for a cheap ascended weapon. If you’d rather spend less gold and do more questy things you can work on the Machined weapon collection for an ascended weapon box but it costs a -lot- of map currency. (On the plus side, Machined weapons are account-bound exotics so they’re helpful while you’re still working on Ascended).

My only complaint about the loot/rewards is one that’s probably more of an upside than a downside – Nearly everything has a value in gold. Therefore it ‘feels bad’ (just a little) to know that instead of crafting an ascended, I could have sold the materials for ~70g.

Anyway. I think the game is plenty rewarding in terms of gold/materials gained per activity, but you have to take it that extra step and craft with it or do the collections to see that final reward.

I probably would have agreed with you a few months ago, but since that time I’ve gotten all but the ascended shields from HoT in about a months time which I should have the shields done within a week. Not to mention three or four ascended weapons from Teq. LS maps make back, pendant, accessories, and rings to get to ascended easy. Also would add I’m super excited for Soulbeast as my ranger has really suffered in HoT. If anything I’m happy that PoF looks like it’s not the mastery grindfest of HoT with overpowered mobs.

There’s a lot to do, join a guild if you need help getting there. Many are recruiting and active.

chronometria.3708:

Still waiting for a precursor drop and I have played since beta. Leaves a real bad feeling in my mouth, especially when others have had several in that time.

They kind of implemented a precursor crafting system to solve this problem. It’s… a disaster that “fixes” the problem in a way that still costs you tons of money because that’s Anet for you, but it exists.

chatiss.3281:

I am very very disappointed and slightly depressed regarding the effort / reward ratio in GW2. I have been playing for almost 5 years and during the last year I have noted that the rewards/drops/treasures/crafting has taken a turn for the horrible. After 5 years of playing, crafting, exploring, participating I have 5 ascended weapons and nothing more to show for all my efforts. Depressing. Apparently ArenaNet does not think highly of really helping players to feel good about themselves WITHOUT spending tons of money. Too bad.

You mention crafting… In 5 years I have crafted 12 sets of ascended armor and over 70 weapons. Not sure why you made the decision to not craft them for yourself. Kinda wish I had just waited though because now I have bank tabs full of ascended drops from fractals/raids. Come on man, the rewards in this game are orders of magnitude better than anything I have seen before.

Not quite sure I understand the problem?

Why do you have so many ascended weapons? That does not seem an efficient use of resources.

Ashen.2907:

Danikat.8537:

Ashen.2907:

Danikat.8537:

The main rewards in GW2 are cosmetic – that’s how the game’s always been designed (it was the same in GW1). You’re not supposed to be constantly getting better and more powerful equipment, just things which look different and potentially nicer/more interesting. That is of course subjective, but I think there’s a wide enough variety that everyone should be able to find something they like.

What if that, “something they like,” is best in slot gear for the various builds they like to run? Not increasingly stronger, just BIS. An average of one weapon per year does not seem particularly rewarding to me either.

Remember, ANet decided to implement a higher tier of gear, a performance increase, as part of the reward model of the game.

That ‘something they like’ was specifically referring to the different styles of equipment. I didn’t want to imply that there’s a set progression to the cosmetics – that newer or harder content will always award better looking items, because as I said that’s subjective. One of my personal favourites for my main character is the noble coat – a mid level crafted piece, another is the carapace coat. I haven’t found anything in HoT or Season 3 I like as much as those two.

But even if the newest/most ‘impressive’ items aren’t right for you I think there should be something available to suit anyone. (Although we are still missing some styles, like trousers on female light armour without random holes in the sides.)

Sure, but the OP only refers to gear tier in terms of what be considers rewarding. ANet introduced an increased degree of rarity for BiS gear rewards, making it part of, and for some people the primary element of, the reward structure in game.

I do think that five pieces of equipment in five years is a bit unrewarding.

Except that it can be crafted and the mats to craft it are easy to get. If it ONLY dropped that would be a problem. But it can drop and it can be crafted. In addition there are collections which can be done without too much difficultly for ascended weapons, such as all the HOT specialization weapons and more recently the calebolg weapons.

I haven’t gotten many ascended weapon drops, but I have a lot of ascended weapons.

Ashen.2907:

Danikat.8537:

The main rewards in GW2 are cosmetic – that’s how the game’s always been designed (it was the same in GW1). You’re not supposed to be constantly getting better and more powerful equipment, just things which look different and potentially nicer/more interesting. That is of course subjective, but I think there’s a wide enough variety that everyone should be able to find something they like.

What if that, “something they like,” is best in slot gear for the various builds they like to run? Not increasingly stronger, just BIS. An average of one weapon per year does not seem particularly rewarding to me either.

Remember, ANet decided to implement a higher tier of gear, a performance increase, as part of the reward model of the game.

OP says they have been playing for five years. If they really just want BIS, then that’s easily achievable by crafting alone, with a bit of patience and effort. Since the post is about rewards though, they just want to be either luckier with drops, or more generous drops overall.

My point is that if you’re really after BIS then relying on drops while you can earn those through a variety of ways within the game you’re being unrealistic.

not sure how you don’t have many ascended items with playing for 5 years?
do you play 30 mins/day?
I’m playing for 3 years and 8 months , managed to make 5 ascended armor set (3/6 on the 6th set atm) , over 15+ ascended weapons (not even counting what you can get from achievements) and 4 legendaries .

Playtime 2 years 8 months in wvw and 1 year of pve.
you have to plan and work a bit harder I guess.

I have a bank tab almost full of armor pieces and weapons…and already equipped most of my characters. All of this mainly thanks to fractal dailies and raids (which i stopped for now as i had done everything i could there)

Unless you just do open world stuff the whole time, I find it hard that you dropped only 5 items in 5 years, but if you do …can’t really blame that you get little rewards while playing the easiest content of the game.

I have 11 toons. All of them (at least) full ascended. One and a half legendary armors. Five legendary weapons. Two legendary backpacks. Three bank tabs full of unused ascended gear. I’ve salvaged unnumbered ascended gear, especially rings from fractals. Just a complain: no precursors from drop in 5 years. I suppose I’m a very unlucky guy.

So… have you ever done what we can call “high-end content” in this game?

I think there’s a disconnect somewhere with some players being under the mistaken impression that an MMORPG is the same as a console RPG.

name one mmo where anything you do in it matters, the only problem with gw2 is it doesnt have the fake cookie that is power creep