Guild Wars 2

I really cannot believe how lazy people are in this game, if it takes a bit of effort or longer than 30mins to achieve the crying starts. GW2 is easy mode compared to most other MMOs I really can’t understand why people complain about gold or grinding.

Telis.4189:

I really cannot believe how lazy people are in this game, if it takes a bit of effort or longer than 30mins to achieve

Getting 40 foxfire clusters per tier takes way, way, way more than 30 minutes or “a bit of effort”. I am currently averaging about 2-3 clusters per day. Using 6 alts. Granted, seems i am unusually unlucky this time, but still, that was one of the things in this scavenger hunt that could have been done way better.

You should be getting more than 2-3 a day with 6 alts, with my 5 alts I was getting 10-15 an hour. Unless Anet nerfed it after the first week, not needed to go back since then so idk.

Farm the two statues then have a quick run around straits and malchors, then swap to next alt.

Bubi.7942:

/shrug

I’m making 40-50 g profit daily from the materials. No objections here.

Gonna get it eventually when prices go down.

l2market

This.

I can wait…

Bubi.7942:

/shrug

I’m making 40-50 g profit daily from the materials. No objections here.

Gonna get it eventually when prices go down.

l2market

That’s what I said about ascended armor…still wanting on Bolt of Damask to go down…

I’m making the backitem, only because of Mawdrey II.

I have some sad feelings for Mawdrey tho, but I think I’m gonna delete it anyway…

Personally I thought the scavenger hunt process is pretty interesting, and for all we know this is Anet testing on the feasibility of a precursor crafting trial.

Gold sinks? I dunno, I spent 100s of gold on skins and stuff, then in the next few days I find myself with 100s of gold to spend again. Perhaps google up gold sinks and understand what it actually is before hating it.

I’m lacking the pristine fractal relics, so I joined a fractal party.

Ran into the new hammer bug (where the hammer in cliffside doesn’t reappear no matter how many times everyone suicides). Thanks for reminding me why I HATE fractals.

I don’t mind grind that much. However, I do mind gating things behind bug infested crap.

I have to agree with other posters on this point. The reward for the LS are items you have to put a lot of time into to get the final product. Some may say you dont have to do this do something else. Then with that logic your given a reward for something you have no use for. It seemed in the past the reward for LS was some what usefull.

CeruleanRevolver.6085:

… precursor crafting trial.

I’d rather this be a small scale compared to what Legendary crafting could be. After all, the prestige is meant to come from the unique skin and not the crafting material. But yes, precursor crafting could be just as costly as the precursor itself.

I bet a lot less players would complain if A-Net made Mawdrey legendary instead of ascended… despite having the same stats, etc. Because then the effort they make to get it seems reasonable. <_<’

CeruleanRevolver.6085:

Personally I thought the scavenger hunt process is pretty interesting, and for all we know this is Anet testing on the feasibility of a precursor crafting trial.

Gold sinks? I dunno, I spent 100s of gold on skins and stuff, then in the next few days I find myself with 100s of gold to spend again. Perhaps google up gold sinks and understand what it actually is before hating it.

I’d love to know what you’re doing that’s just “finding yourself” with hundreds of gold in a matter of days.

Boneheart.3561:

CeruleanRevolver.6085:

… precursor crafting trial.

I’d rather this be a small scale compared to what Legendary crafting could be. After all, the prestige is meant to come from the unique skin and not the crafting material. But yes, precursor crafting could be just as costly as the precursor itself.

Given the prestige of a legendary, it is likely that it’ll even be on a larger scale than what we’re having now. I’m only hoping that it won’t be a too time-gated material or accountbound only mats. The prestige comes from the effort you put into to getting that unique skin, which most people may shy away from. This is good as not everyone will have it, but everyone has the potential of getting it if they really want to.

Labjax.2465:

CeruleanRevolver.6085:

Personally I thought the scavenger hunt process is pretty interesting, and for all we know this is Anet testing on the feasibility of a precursor crafting trial.

Gold sinks? I dunno, I spent 100s of gold on skins and stuff, then in the next few days I find myself with 100s of gold to spend again. Perhaps google up gold sinks and understand what it actually is before hating it.

I’d love to know what you’re doing that’s just “finding yourself” with hundreds of gold in a matter of days.

Play the game, :p

Run dungeons, sell drops etc. Comes up to average 10g a day in a few hours.

When I started receiving the items for the backpiece, and saw that I had to explore the world to power them up, I thought to myself: “cool, I’ll do that”.

But then I checked the wiki, and saw the horrors. More massive gold sinking. More masive grinding and farming. More crafting. The exploration was just a small trick, an illusion, a lure to make the whole thing seem more interesting than what it was.

Now I have plenty of items in the inventory and I’m afraid of deleting them. I want to keep them, but I don’t have space at the bank. I still feel tempted to power them up, because why should I, if I know it’ll all be a wasted effort?

I still remember when I bought GW2 because they promised the game would revolve around fun tasks and challenging content, instead of mindless grinding. But it turns out that, although grinding is “optional” (as in, it’s either cosmetic or the game is too easy for the stat upgrades to not make any difference), there’s not much to do in the game behind this “optional” stuff outside a few hours of story or repeating old, broken content.

Is this the future of the MMO genre?

Sorry my problem is the need for fractal relics. I don’t intend to ever waste my time in there. It’s The living story not please, please, please do the fractals because there empty like the dungeons. So hence the requirement to do a fractal to do the Living Story Backpack. NO not gonna happen.. Got much better things to do. Like wash the dishes!

Faux.1937:

……
I can get it, I have everything to get it, I have all the free time in the world b.c I work from home, BUT I dont agree with it, so im not.

So the point of your post is to announce your “sit in”? I’m unsure how you think that’s going to change anything (other than you NOT getting the item), but you are welcome to do so. Good luck.

CeruleanRevolver.6085:

Play the game, :p

Run dungeons, sell drops etc. Comes up to average 10g a day in a few hours.

Oh ok, I see where I was confused. You have a different conception of what “a few days” is. I have no trouble making as much as 10 gold a day if I put the time in, but that takes ten days worth of it just to get 100 gold.

Even pushing it and managing 20 gold a day (avg) would still take five days to reach a single hundred.

Perhaps I’m taking your “hundreds” remark too literally?

DiogoSilva.7089:

Is this the future of the MMO genre?

I think it’s more like “the present” of the MMO genre and the sad reality is that these games keep repeating other games because apparently their standard techniques – some of the same ones that we love to hate – are effective. (Plus a lot of the same devs end up working on these games, so there’s that too.)

These companies kind of have their hooks in you when the only thing you’re required to pay for is the box (if not less). It becomes a matter of, “If I want to play an MMO for free, I have to find the one that is screwing me over the least.”

The main trouble with games like these is that once they’re driven by a cash shop, there is no security from long-term subscriptions, so development is just as much a battle of improving the game as it is a battle to stay afloat. In an ideal world (ok, more like a dream world) devs would be able to improve these games at their own rate, without being super concerned about making sure that money keeps coming in.

It’s kind of like the presidency problem in the US; presidency only lasts for 4 years, so the president can’t really plan to fix the country long-term – he/she instead has to focus mostly on getting reelected and not tanking in polls.

I actually like how building Mawdrey feels like a journey/scavenger hunt. Not that I’ll be doing it though, because it looks like fungi growing on your back.

This. Quoted for TRUTH — “When I started receiving the items for the backpiece, and saw that I had to explore the world to power them up, I thought to myself: “cool, I’ll do that”. But then I checked the wiki, and saw the horrors. More massive gold sinking. More masive grinding and farming. More crafting. The exploration was just a small trick, an illusion, a lure to make the whole thing seem more interesting than what it was.” --

I understand they want you to put a some effort into getting the back item. I think that’s cool. Makes it seem a little extra special.

IMO the perfect amount of effort was similar to the spinal blades back item. Multiple tiers, could upgrade as far as you wanted. Could get exotic easy. Hell they even made it so you could get ascended not to bad either.

But this…. This started out as a great idea! Scavenger hunt?!?! YEAH!!!

Too bad for the person like me (who can only plays 1hr or so a day, MAXIMUM). This is an impossible achievement unless you happen to be sitting on a mountain of gold. (Also, the vast majority of people who only can find 1hr or so a day to play aren’t sitting on a mountain of gold.)

I think if they had made it so you finish the story, have the story provide you ample amounts of the “special resource,” maybe get a couple of achievements, maybe pay a bit of gold, and then you could get the back it would be perfect!. This is all totally doable at ~1hr a day x 2weeks. Just like spinal blades.

This however is completely excessive, and quite frankly a huge disappointment. I really hope they do not take this approach in the future.

Yes! Ascended items are way too much boring grind! Give them away instead for free just for loging in every month! Or just for loging in every time! And the coin collecting! Or collecting in general! Why do we need 50 parts for the Shatterer event, let it slide with 30+, that’s more than enough! Why do we need to find ALL the coins for ALL the achievements? Give us all the achivements just for 3/4 of the coins! Why do we have to dodge ALL the blasts to get achievement? So what if I blow up a few times, everyone does!

… know what? Hell no. You want your shiny loot and gear? Work for it. You want your achievement for coin collecting? Work for it. You don’t think it’s worth it? Well, what’s the problem?

The game’s giving you tools. You can use them, you don’t have to. Some people enjoy the scavenger hunt and it’s designed with them in mind. You don’t want to hunt for items? Don’t. Just scrap the dust or keep it for possible future use. But for crying out loud, could you people stop counting on others to give you free stuff and nerf everything that you trip over? How about you just learn to step over it instead?

“The reward for this content doesn’t reflect the effort you put into it.”
“You just want everything for free!”

Every. Single. Time.

Pandaman.4758:

“The reward for this content doesn’t reflect the effort you put into it.”
“You just want everything for free!”

Every. Single. Time.

I think this particular back item would be essentially free if it’s components were cheaper/fewer/somehow more abundant than they are now.

The amount of “effort” I’ve placed into this scavenger hunt, I don’t know what kind of reward to expect. I just played parts of the game I normally play.

Changer the Elder.2948:

Yes! Ascended items are way too much boring grind! Give them away instead for free just for loging in every month! Or just for loging in every time! And the coin collecting! Or collecting in general! Why do we need 50 parts for the Shatterer event, let it slide with 30+, that’s more than enough! Why do we need to find ALL the coins for ALL the achievements? Give us all the achivements just for 3/4 of the coins! Why do we have to dodge ALL the blasts to get achievement? So what if I blow up a few times, everyone does!

… know what? Hell no. You want your shiny loot and gear? Work for it. You want your achievement for coin collecting? Work for it. You don’t think it’s worth it? Well, what’s the problem?

The game’s giving you tools. You can use them, you don’t have to. Some people enjoy the scavenger hunt and it’s designed with them in mind. You don’t want to hunt for items? Don’t. Just scrap the dust or keep it for possible future use. But for crying out loud, could you people stop counting on others to give you free stuff and nerf everything that you trip over? How about you just learn to step over it instead?

Holy—hyperbole— batman! O.o

I think if you actually ask and listen you will find the vast majority of people aren’t opposed to putting in some effort to get a cool item or cool ascended gear. What they are saying is that the required effort is out-of-touch to what the majority of players want/are physically capable of committing too timewise. Its as simple as that.

And honestly, that is a problem. There is no reason one player should be able to should be able to roll full ascended, with infusions (which directly effects your ability to participate in and enjoy content [ie WvW, Fractals, Dungeons,]) just because they can dedicate 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, more hours of week to the game than someone else can.
Again, this point is based on the notion that gear—> effectiveness at participating in content of the game. Don’t have have full ascended? To bad you can’t run the lvl35 fractal with our group. So what it comes down too then, is that “working for it” == ability for one player to play the game over another. This isn’t fair, especially if both players are equally paying customers.

On the other hand, people intrinsically understand the difference of “working for it== my ability to play the game content” vs. “working for it==I look cooler doing it.” Take notice how you don’t see these complaints even nearly as frequently when it comes to PvP where gear is fair. The vast majority of people understand the difference between fairness vs. appearance luxery and that’s really all they are asking for here as well.

In summary, 1. People don’t mind “working for it” 2. The “working for it” required here is totally out of touch with what the people here want (or can do). 3. This is likely the case for the majority of players. 4. When “working for it” seriously prevents access to items, by the majority of players, and these items have a direct effect on your game performance and/or your ability to effectively participate in other content aspects of the game, this is a problem. 5. People intrinsically understand this fairness compared to “working for it” to look cool or get perks in other ways and are okay with this.

6. Best solution: Tone down work required to get the item with meaningful exotic/ascended stats. Make it a tier system similar to the spinal blades back item. Make the acquisition of special materials required for the back item much easier from the story content (again similar to spinal blades). For the people who really really really want to “work for it,” Give them extra grindfest tasks so they can get a title, a special skin for that particular back item, special dyes, etc.

Gibbilo.3270:

… grindfest…

I feel like you’ve discredited your entire argument with that one word.

Faux.1937:

It just feels like more gold sinks every update.

What gold sink? The backpiece is practically free if you put in the work to make it yourself.

Boneheart.3561:

Gibbilo.3270:

… grindfest…

I feel like you’ve discredited your entire argument with that one word.

Not sure why. Isn’t that what people who want to “work for it” like best?

The more pain there is to distinguish yourself from the masses, the better the prize right?

I don’t think anyone here was complaining about having to go on a scavenger hunt or complete the living story missions. I do think they stated that they don’t want to do the same 4-5 events over and over to get enough geodes to buy 1 piece of clay (or the equivalent). Which, to me, sounds more like a grinding as opposed to less like a grinding.

So when people say: “these scrubs don’t want to work for it.” Then the only thing they could mean then is “these scrubs don’t want to farm 4-5 events for geodes (or the equivalent)” Again, because as I have read most everyone has already stated they are totally okay with unlocking content by scavenger hunts (This was a great idea!!), completing missions, etc.

Which implies that the people who don’t mind “working for it” (and get mad at the people who do) either like, or at least tolerate, things that seem close to grinding or are, in fact, grinding. This is fine. If that’s how you like to play the game that’s cool!

It doesn’t mean though that you should get better gear compared to someone who likes doing missions, exploring, leveling up characters, etc. instead of playing the same 4-5 events over and over to get geodes (or the equivalent thereof).

Gibbilo.3270:

I don’t think anyone here was complaining about having to go on a scavenger hunt or complete the living story missions. I do think they stated that they don’t want to do the same 4-5 events over and over to get enough geodes to buy 1 piece of clay (or the equivalent). Which, to me, sounds more like a grinding as opposed to less like a grinding.

A total of 75 pieces of clay are needed for the three back pieces. At a cost of 7 geodes (T4 instance) per piece, that’s 525 geodes needed. You can easily earn 30+ geodes in a single sandstorm. That equates to running the same cycle of events about 17 times.

But, that doesn’t include any geodes that you get from completing all four pieces of the personal story, which is a substantial number. It also doesn’t include rewards for repeating those steps for achievements. It also doesn’t include geodes that can be earned from the PvP track. All told, there really isn’t that much grind when you factor that the above has been spread over multiple months of gameplay.

Best of all though, ANet gave a way to skip all of that grind and allows you to buy it off of the Trading Post. Yes, it’s expensive, but you’re essentially paying someone else to do that grind for you, so it should be expensive.

I’d rather have an item that requires “too much work too much time” and feel like I accomplished something, instead of having the same kitten back piece that everyone else was able to complete in a couple of hours….

I am making the back items, and I’m not outraged by what’s required to make them, but I am somewhat disappointed in the “recipe”. Part of it is fun, most of it is just an uninteresting time sink.

Because I’ve been playing since launch, I was lucky enough to already have some of the harder-to-accumulate items like the +5 agony infusion, the pristine fractal relics, and the heaping piles of crafting mats.

That mostly leaves me with the power ups, the geodes for the special items, the foxfires, and the plant food.

The geode requirements weren’t too bad aside from the clay pots, which I chose to buy. I wasn’t thrilled about grinding out geodes, but that was mostly because it was in contention with saving up for a bug weapon recipe.

What I didn’t like about the geode requirement was that we didn’t know when Dry Top was a lot livelier that there would be something besides bug weapons to spend geodes on. I would have worked harder at acquiring them when the zone was more occupied and the events were more fun. Now, they’re kinda sad.

The foxfires are just ugh, any way you look at it. After trying to gather them by roaming around and average only 2-3/hour, I gave that up. Now I just shuttle my 80’s between the two tree shrines in Malchor’s and Straits 2-3 times per night. Better yield, less time. Utterly boring.

The plant food is just irritating. To be fair, I would probably find it less so if there was more to do right now. With no LS on the horizon for weeks (months?), there’s nothing on my personal checklist besides work on the back item. The plant food and foxfires devolve that into “log in for a few minutes to chop trees and make plant food”. The time gating also makes it difficult to help someone else since I’m, um, insufficiently noble to put off my own goal repeatedly.

On the plus side, I liked that the some of the components were woven into the LS. I really liked the power up portions sending us to mini dungeons, fractals, jumping puzzles, and other events. (I might have felt differently if I had no fractal relics or agony infusions. I pretty much quit fractals when they made every run require 4 of them.)

It’s great that most of the mats are aren’t bound so I can help friends with theirs, and people who aren’t interested in the back item can earn some money.

TL; DR The fun bits are soon over, but the boring bits go on and on.

Boneheart.3561:

I think this particular back item would be essentially free if it’s components were cheaper/fewer/somehow more abundant than they are now.

The amount of “effort” I’ve placed into this scavenger hunt, I don’t know what kind of reward to expect. I just played parts of the game I normally play.

If making the backpiece only involved a scavenger hunt (which is trivial) then what you say would be true, but it doesn’t. The Mawdrey backpiece requires far more materials and crafting requirements than any other ascended backpiece currently available (with the exception of the spinal blades, but that’s only because blade shards aren’t abundantly available anymore); how can we not find the effort to reward ratio to be completely skewed when early backpieces required one farmed material and one maxed crafting skill at most, then suddenly have this shopping list of requirements for Mawdrey fly out of the blue?

Pandaman.4758:

Boneheart.3561:

I think this particular back item would be essentially free if it’s components were cheaper/fewer/somehow more abundant than they are now.

The amount of “effort” I’ve placed into this scavenger hunt, I don’t know what kind of reward to expect. I just played parts of the game I normally play.

If making the backpiece only involved a scavenger hunt (which is trivial) then what you say would be true, but it doesn’t. The Mawdrey backpiece requires far more materials and crafting requirements than any other ascended backpiece currently available (with the exception of the spinal blades, but that’s only because blade shards aren’t abundantly available anymore); how can we not find the effort to reward ratio to be completely skewed when early backpieces required one farmed material and one maxed crafting skill at most, then suddenly have this shopping list of requirements for Mawdrey fly out of the blue?

Mawdrey is only expensive if you have to have it right now and feel compelled to spend the gold to buy the parts. Otherwise, the cost is trivial. (assuming you have already leveled your crafting). Even buying a few parts, like the clay pots, is still going to be cheaper than crafting something like the Light of Dwayna, with its 50 Icy Runestones and piles of Damask.

Pandaman.4758:

… then suddenly have this shopping list of requirements for Mawdrey fly out of the blue?

You must’ve looked at a data-mine or researched the wiki after The Dragon’s Reach Part 1 came out? I didn’t know what the hell these items would make, but given the components it wasn’t gonna hurt my bank.

So Heat Stone, Grow Lamp, and Clay Pot. These are the culprits? Clay Pot is no biggie, Grow Lamp has a ten-day period if you’re starting from scratch but that’s a non-issue. Heat Stone seems like a gate, I didn’t really notice it myself because I had all the materials. I guess you could recoup your loss, buying the Lodestones, by selling two-day’s worth of Damask.

I’m having a difficult time seeing this from any other perspective; maybe because I haven’t even started growing the seed or looked at any guides. Guess I’ll come back when I finish.

Pipra.7580:

What gold sink? The backpiece is practically free if you put in the work to make it yourself.

If you don’t have 400 in certain professions, you have to buy components from other people.

And if you give me a “just go grind those professions” line, my eyes may just roll out of my head and onto the floor. But absurdity aside, I actually did grind the professions I needed. I was gonna put in the time and make it, despite my better judgment.

Then I saw Mawdrey come out (the ascended part) and I said screw it. If I am ever bored and need to spend some gold one day, perhaps I’ll complete the exotic part for the skin.

Faux.1937:

Will not be backing it, made the others, but not this is, Im on full boycott of it.

Needs way to much material for a crappy back. I personally dont agree with the amount of work/items it takes.

It just feels like more gold sinks every update. Oh and the +5 agony is Account bound Im guess that was because we need them for this back and they wanted to drive the prices up for more gold sinks.

I care about this game, other wise I wouldnt have over 6k hours into it. Im saying this out of love not hate.

What if the ascended backpiece were the precursor you coveted?

Try to see what they’re trying to accomplish with this crafting adventure, it sure seems like Anet are experimenting with this as an early version of a precursor scavenger hunt.

Still feel it would be too much of a gold/time sink if you got your precursor at the end?

Boneheart.3561:

CeruleanRevolver.6085:

… precursor crafting trial.

I’d rather this be a small scale compared to what Legendary crafting could be. After all, the prestige is meant to come from the unique skin and not the crafting material. But yes, precursor crafting could be just as costly as the precursor itself.

Then again – the current crafting of Mawdrey doesn’t need to be costly if you just play the content. I haven’t bought a single of those expensive mats yet, just farming foxfire clusters and crafting the time-gated materials as I go using materials I already collect(ed) as I play the rest of the game. And the recipes, etc. are mostly expensive in terms of geodes, but you get those a-plenty from just running Dry Top events.

So yes, precursor crafting can/should be just as costly as the precursor if you want to take short cuts and buy the ingredients of the TP, but if you just hoard what you already get as you play the various aspects of the game, it’s not and comes automatically by itself.

Pipra.7580:

Mawdrey is only expensive if you have to have it right now and feel compelled to spend the gold to buy the parts. Otherwise, the cost is trivial. (assuming you have already leveled your crafting). Even buying a few parts, like the clay pots, is still going to be cheaper than crafting something like the Light of Dwayna, with its 50 Icy Runestones and piles of Damask.

Didn’t say Mawdrey is expensive, I said that requirements to make Mawdrey is not comparable to the requirements of any other backpiece.

Look at it this way: if you wanted to make an ascended backpiece through the mystic forge, you had fixed recipes for fixed stat results; with the tailoring backpieces the “cost” for being able to select stats were a maxed profession and 53g in non-farmable materials, and for spinal blades the “cost” was ascended mats and two time-limited materials.

Now look at Mawdrey: the only mechanical difference it has over the god-themed backpieces and spinal blades is Mawdrey II. Does this justify the “cost” of four more maxed crafting professions (a completely artificial requirement too, both plant foods should have been cooking recipes and the grow lamp, heat stone, and clay pot should have been artificer recipes) and fractal materials (which I would understand if Mawdrey came pre-infused, but it doesn’t)?

Crafting any profession to 400 is negligible in cost, just FYI. Google gw2crafts, and you will find a very nice set of guides that use the TP API for pricing. You only need ONE of the main Armor professions at 500, however the Heat Stone itself to buy on the TP is pretty much “at cost” to buy it. Meaning if you didn’t have the materials anyway just buying the item is about the cost it would be to make it. Especially if you don’t already have a armoring crafting leveled to 500 yet. Also, these items are made for people who are looking for new things to craft. People like myself who have nothing to craft at the moment because we’ve done the work already and need something new to go for.

as for the backpiece itself, cosmetics are subjective, I personally find this item to be the best looking backpiece in the game currently and it sings perfection for my Sylvari Mesmer and matches her T3 Culti gears wonderfully.

Mawdrey is an extremely good compromise for the complaints given to the various event backpieces over the course of the game.

Some were rare drops, and only the rich could get them
Some were hidden behind accomplishments that not all players were able to achieve
Some were in game modes that players did not enjoy

Mawdrey gives you an option to avoid most of these things. Don’t have the money? craft them. Have a ton of money and no time to play? just buy everything. Have money and time? buy the grindier bits and make the easier pieces yourself.

The only thing you HAVE to do that you cant just buy your way around is the living story, a single fractal run and a few scavenger hunt bits in the open world. Hell, you could even buy the fractal run. If you aren’t willing to at the very least play the living story and visit several locations in the world then you are just expecting the skin for free.

I agree with you OP. I liked the scavenger hunt aspect of the backpiece, but when I looked at how crazy the crafting steps were, I too passed on this. I usually always tried to craft the new stuff if I could, but this one is too long, boring, and pricey to even attempt. Not to mention the foxfire clusters are all locked behind rng too. Ugh. Paaasssss.

Lopez.7369:

What? Mawdrey isn’t any more difficult than the typical ascended backpack, even down to the fractal requirement.

Fractals not difficult enough? Sure, we’ll make it so buggy that you have to abandon your entire run if you lose the hammer in Cliffside!

I hope everyone here realizes you can craft Ascended back pieces in the Mystic Forge. It requires a stack of a T6 material, 50 ectos (ridiculously easy to get if you do EoTM train/world boss runs and salvage Rares), 250 bloodstone dust (everyone has about 1million at this point), and either philosopher stones/obsidian shards (can purchase with skillpoints). The T6 material is the hardest part but that’s farmable, plus you can use laurels or save up money and buy them.

You don’t need FoTM items at all.

Now, the Mawdrey II backpiece requires much more work. But that’s because it is a unique skin. I realize you guys don’t like having to go out of your way to get something, but it seems many are up in arms like Ascended backpieces are extremely hard to get. They aren’t….you don’t ever have to step into FoTM and you can still get an ascended backpiece…

If you want a super unique backpiece like Mawdrey with a fancy ability, then you gotta put in some EFFORT.

Draknar.5748:

I hope everyone here realizes you can craft Ascended back pieces in the Mystic Forge. It requires a stack of a T6 material, 50 ectos (ridiculously easy to get if you do EoTM train/world boss runs and salvage Rares), 250 bloodstone dust (everyone has about 1million at this point), and either philosopher stones/obsidian shards (can purchase with skillpoints). The T6 material is the hardest part but that’s farmable, plus you can use laurels or save up money and buy them.

You don’t need FoTM items at all.

Now, the Mawdrey II backpiece requires much more work. But that’s because it is a unique skin. I realize you guys don’t like having to go out of your way to get something, but it seems many are up in arms like Ascended backpieces are extremely hard to get. They aren’t….you don’t ever have to step into FoTM and you can still get an ascended backpiece…

If you want a super unique backpiece like Mawdrey with a fancy ability, then you gotta put in some EFFORT.

Did they change the Vial of Condensed Mists Essence to Bloodstone Dust? Or are you just confused?

Anyways, the fact that they make you do fractals for this Living Story back is ridiculous – did we have to do Fractals to get Light of Dwayna? Chaos of Lyssa? nope… so there is precedent for Ascended backs completely outside of Fractals. It is a Living Story scavenger hunt that takes us all over Tyria…and then you get to the end and they just toss in “Go do five fractals…because…reasons.” Pretty much ruined the entire experience…it was fun up until that point.

bigblah.3285:

Lopez.7369:

What? Mawdrey isn’t any more difficult than the typical ascended backpack, even down to the fractal requirement.

Fractals not difficult enough? Sure, we’ll make it so buggy that you have to abandon your entire run if you lose the hammer in Cliffside!

this bug is easily avoided, don’t let someone prone to dying/not know where they are going take the hammer. This bug ONLY happens when someone carrying the hammer falls between the wood slats. It’s not hard to avoid and doesn’t happen that often at all.

Errr, I personally believe the materials needed to get it are very reasonable and easily attainable. The only issue is the Foxfire Clusters with their RNG aspect, but their prices have gone down enough now. Also I tend to get 3-4 every day with my chop chop chopping. The timegated stuff is okay too, I don’t mind waiting.

azurrei.5691:

Did they change the Vial of Condensed Mists Essence to Bloodstone Dust? Or are you just confused?

They did in fact add a recipe that replaces the mist essence with bloodstone dust. For example:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowyer%27s_Delight

OP this is not the kind of feedback that is considered useful. No one cares that you won’t get the backpiece. Especially when you present your post so maliciously.

When I saw the requirements for a backpack, I took a deep breath and thought, maybe I may not do this one. But once I had made the first one and then the second, I decided, what the heck, this could be something interesting to at least try. It took some planning regarding the materials and some I had to refine which is also something I had never done before.

I had not tried fractals or dungeons up to this point and had no plans on even trying until Mawdrey. I read up on the fractals in the wiki and on other sites and tried to be careful about picking groups for fractals and looked for ones that said everyone welcome or for noobs etc. and I found good groups and some really great people. Once we did get the bugged Cliffside but everyone was a good sport on that run.

Ninetynine percent of this is simply putting the effort and thought into completing the tasks to get to the end goal. I did learned some things from the folk I did them with and that makes it a plus as well. I actually had a good time doing fractals, though I doubt it would be something that would be a regular event for me, who knows I could change my mind on that one, lol…

All in all I liked that there was a lot of variety and we had to do a thing or two outside the box to get this piece. I never expected easy. What I hated the most was the Foxfire gathering for me which was a pain. The upside to that, though, was going through areas collecting higher level mats which I will use for other things now. Also I am helping hubby where I can because not all his crafting levels are high enough to make the plant food or the pot.

It doesn’t look like Mawdrey is going away anytime soon so anyone should be able to craft this if they desire and take their time doing it. No one is making us do this nor did I feel it was unreasonable in any aspect. It was a bit frightening to start fractals especially when you hear the horror stories about some groups. But once I started I realized if you are right up front that you may be new or not done this one before etc. and if the group wants someone experienced, don’t take it personal, just say your byes and look for another group.

clarkcd.6532:

azurrei.5691:

Did they change the Vial of Condensed Mists Essence to Bloodstone Dust? Or are you just confused?

They did in fact add a recipe that replaces the mist essence with bloodstone dust. For example:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowyer%27s_Delight

oooo nice! ty for info Of course, not for the recipes with selectable stats. I wish they would add a recipe that replaces the Mist Stone with, say, 1 or 2 Vision Crystals? That would be nice…