Guild Wars 2

Surely I am not the only one who feels the rewards for the things we do in this game are not worth it?

Dragon fights (world bosses as a whole), jumping puzzles, the little hidden champions through out the world.

I have felt this way since…well, nearly the beginning of the game, but just now it became so incredibly frustrating I want to rip my hair out and gouge out my eyes.
This will be two post. The first is my story, the second is my true suggestion.

I discovered Griffonrook Run (a jumping puzzle area). Minor spoilers ahead;

The premise here is you are up high on tiny platforms. Each of these platforms and ledges have griffons on them. The majority of these platforms are reached by falling to them. It is to be noted that the objective here is impossible to reach without at least 4k HP (due to the level down here) and the 50% falling damage trait.
Getting the achievement for the puzzle is simple; just make it to the end. Not so hard. However, there is a second prize here;

At the beginning of the puzzle you encounter a woman who tells you there is a “magnificant treasure at the end of this wall, guarded by a griffon.” Sounds cool! Slay the—- “The griffon is cake,” she says, “However, the chest is made of steel that can only be destroyed with THIS bomb.” Ok, I’ll just— “But if you get hit by a griffon, the bomb will blow up. Also it will blow up in 2 minutes. Have fun!”

-.-

The problems here seem intentional. The cliffs you are running up are apparently low enough for the griffons to attack you from the ledge below. They can also hit you while you have already fallen past them and moved on to what you thought was safety. There are many flaws here that may just actually be flaws in attack radius, etc.

I just spent an hour attempting this puzzle. Upon FINALLY reaching the chest with my bomb in hand, I layed the bomb beside the chest with pride. Four other people came here with me, they all left 45 minutes ago. I was the sole survivor. The one who stuck it out to the end. And this was difficult!! Truly the first difficult challenge I have experienced in the game that made me kick my wall and slam my mouse on my desk.

The chest is open. Its content lay before me in a satchel. It is time to reap my rewa——

Three blue items. Of no use to my character. With stats inferior to those of its same level. And that sell on the trading post for less than their vendor price of 50 copper (level 41 items).

So, Arena Net, I ask you; what are we playing at?

I was initially spending my day off work doing a speed run for world completion. I was ahead of my intended schedule. I was going to go from 20%-100% in merely a day. But then, oh what’s that map chat? A jumping puzzle? Well, I can take a quick peek…

Griffonrook Run is a BEAUTIFUL area. I was amazing when I finally found the entrance and gazed up at this wonderous landscape. But now, that feeling is gone. I will never again do a jumping puzzle or go out of my way for a chest. There is no reason for it. It is a waste of time. These statements are, of course, opinions. But opinions I feel strongly about.

So, my suggestion (and question to you, Arena Net);

Why is it that this type of content (puzzles, world bosses, DRAGON FIGHTS) does not have event specific items to acquire?
This puzzle should have least given me a title for its difficulty. The items should have at least been soulbound on acquire, class specific, rare items.

Each unique content should offer a chance to acquire unique items specific to that content.

This is a simple concept and quite frankly I am appalled and bewildered as to why it was not implemented to begin with.

I agree with you. I have one character to 80 (Ranger) and have started a new one, but have bypassed a lot because of this very problem:
“The chest is open. Its content lay before me in a satchel. It is time to reap my rewa——

Three blue items. Of no use to my character. With stats inferior to those of its same level. And that sell on the trading post for less than their vendor price of 50 copper (level 41 items)."

I can’t tell you how many puzzles, chests and boss drops I have received on my 80 but I can tell you I have not gotten much of anything she can use at any level of her journey. I stopped doing puzzles and hidden boss fights for the chests because of this very thing.

Now that I have started my second character (currently lvl 10 Necro), I am not that enthusiastic about revisiting many of the puzzles or bosses w/chests as I initially was.

In 9 out of 10 drops I got items I could have used back several levels ago but most not at all on my profession. On those that were soul bound, NOT useful at all. I could not even sell them. They ended up being destroyed because I can’t use heavy armor and won’t on my Necro either.

There’s absolutely no reason to do any of the jumping puzzles more than once. It’s aggravating enough that there’s no puzzle aspect to them, just follow the line of technical jumps and try and figure out where the invisible walls are. But on top of that, they all drop terribad loot. I love the ones where there are three or so potential paths, but only one goes to the target chest, but since you have no idea where the target chest is there’s no possible way you can choose the correct one except by luck.

I have to agree with you, loot seems very random, hard things drop mostly crappy items (a fex times they’ve been awesome though). BUT, easy things seem to have the same chances to give me that awesome loot that the harder ones, so why bother…
I did that puzzle and after 2 or 3 attempts with the bomb I just thought “aahh screw it, I’ll just do it for the achievement, the loot will probably be crap anyways” and just skipped the bomb part and started killing every griffon…
If I would have believed that the loot could be, at least, above average I could have keep on trying to do it the hard way…

the 12-orb scavenger’s puzzle in Malchor’s was not rewarding after 4 times through it all. blues i could not use, and a singe “weak” gem. each time.

you do get achievement points for doing them, but yes, once through is all you need. as stated earlier, terri-bad loot doesn’t do these justice.

yea, “event” loot like puzzles should be
1, level appropriate
2, class appropriate
3, event themed

the lions arch puzzle in sharks maw, is acceptable in terms of event themed
but completly sux when, you complete it on a lv8 toon,
only to find out the vendor at the end that gives you properly themed pirate gear
only has items for lvs 40 and 80, if i remember right

what a waste of my time
especially as a person who generally dosnt do puzzles, events, titles, etc
unless your a hardcore completionist, the bennefit/rewards for doing the stuff
is worse than worthless 98% of the time

The problem isn’t so much that you aren’t rewarded for your effort… but that you are rewarded for a lack of effort. It is so easy to get anything (other than a legendary) in this game that when you get a reward it’s most likely not going to be better than what you already have. All it takes is a couple silver at most levels to gear yourself up in full greens, and it’s no more than a few gold at 80 to get yourself decked out in exotics. From there, the only things left are cosmetic upgrades so the rest of the rewards in the game are essentially just money.

While I would like to see some better rewards all over the place, it’s hard to think of something that wouldn’t require a reworking of major game mechanics to actually implement. Since the main focus of the high level game is cosmetic items it would make sense for something like Griffonrook Run to give you some special weapons/armor pieces with unique cosmetic looks you can’t get anywhere else, even if the stats suck. I think that’s a pretty good compromise for rewards. Other options would be non-equipment items such as mini-pets or something. The problem with all of this then is that it requires a lot of new art assets, which is not something that can be done quickly or easily.

I see all of your points I guess. There are certainly a lot of posts about the lack of good loot in this game. I don’t have an answer for that.

All I can tell you is that there are also a lot of players(call em casuals if you wish) who don’t play for the loot rewards. Maybe that’s wierd I dunno. I can spend 2 hours on a puzzle and not care if I get anything good in the chest. I just like playing I guess. /shrugs

Obsidian.1328:

All I can tell you is that there are also a lot of players(call em casuals if you wish) who don’t play for the loot rewards. Maybe that’s wierd I dunno. I can spend 2 hours on a puzzle and not care if I get anything good in the chest. I just like playing I guess. /shrugs

I’m the same way. I’ve taken it a step further and I’m trying to find the hidden areas without looking them up. Most of the time, the only reward that I keep is the screenshot I never really go back and do them over unless I’m helping someone.

In the twitch-tv thing they did they said they will be ramping up rewards for jumping puzzles achievements and such. They will even include karma for you.

i just think that for example the griphon run, the loot chest could contain a set of gear
skin transmutations (account bound)

making room for more usefull rewards like forge items, boosts
and the other random goodies that are harder to get
(not counting the gem store)
like black lion keys, i find chests all the time, but the only keys i ever got are from the story, (i think its intentional, but i dont know why, other than funding)

gear loot from events is silly anyways, reskins would be where its at

sure itd be awhile till they had all the arts, to implement it
but the reskin system is already in place
and you dont get the issues of getting “junk” gear that you cant/dont want

instead youd have a reskin item that you can stack and store, use on other toons
and if you run out, you can do the puzzle again
wich adds a reason to revisit or just do the things on each toon
it would be a big help in removing the “been there, done that” feeling
you get from puzzles/events

I have to agree. Loving the game…

But just today, I was vs this champion THING. And it kept focusing me,
wherever I kitten well went. Eventually it got defeated, with the help of some other players and some teamwork. Was a good battle.

The reward? Somethng like rawhide trousers or something. I’m over level 50.

Mijinion.7168:

it would be a big help in removing the “been there, done that” feeling
you get from puzzles/events

Hmmm, I get this concept better. Promoting returns to pre-explored areas is always an MMO issue it seems. Perhaps a good way to implement this is by trying out some of GW1’s daily’s. I would probaby opt for making them weekly but the concept is the same. For instance, make the weekly something like this:

- 1 puzzle
- 2 champion bosses
- 3 vista’s
- 4 Dynamic Events
- 5 convo’s with city citizens

*just have the particular things you do change every week.

Make the reward some minor achievement + a nice chest with at least one profession specific rare item in it.

Content replayability + better loot…2 birds with one stone.

Svenn.5209:

…Since the main focus of the high level game is cosmetic items it would make sense for something like Griffonrook Run to give you some special weapons/armor pieces with unique cosmetic looks you can’t get anywhere else…

One might even argue that almost the entire game is about cosmetic items…most people can either craft or cheaply purchase the “stats” gear they want from the trading market; but if each puzzle had a unique skin reward there would be far greater incentive to do them. A simple Lion’s Arch vendor who will only sell skins to people who have unlocked a puzzle on their account would really make the time spend doing those feel worthwhile (and heck, while they’re at it, how about making all puzzle rewards be town clothes items since there’s a compete and utter lack of those at present.

For dragons and other major events (cathedrals in Orr) maybe some sort of token system similar to dungeon rewards. Each time you complete one of those events you are guaranteed to get at least 1 token (in addition to the usual random loot that few people do anything with other than salvage or vendor). Maybe 1 token for bronze….5 for silver….10 for gold…then have an assortment of new stuff that you can buy with those. I suppose technically that’s already happening via the karma you get from doing the events, but the amount of karma is so low relative to the cost of the gear (not even 1% of a single L80 item usually) that you don’t tend to think of it that way. Maybe all those events need is a large boost to the karma reward (and maybe a little more selection from the karma vendors).

Taking that a step further…maybe completing a puzzle should have a karma reward…and not a small one either. Then you’d have considerably more incentive to do them.

Lori.6571:

Svenn.5209:

…Since the main focus of the high level game is cosmetic items it would make sense for something like Griffonrook Run to give you some special weapons/armor pieces with unique cosmetic looks you can’t get anywhere else…

One might even argue that almost the entire game is about cosmetic items…most people can either craft or cheaply purchase the “stats” gear they want from the trading market; but if each puzzle had a unique skin reward there would be far greater incentive to do them.

The problem here is that art assets are one of the most time consuming things to make. Could they have 700 different skins for each and every thing you do in the game? Sure, but it would take them YEARS to get all the art for those done unless they were really simple re-skins, which then people would complain that the skins were too similar.

What if they just take away the chests period, and it is strictly for achievement sake? Would you prefer no reward vs one you feel is measly outside of your account getting the achievement?

Prophet.6954:

What if they just take away the chests period, and it is strictly for achievement sake? Would you prefer no reward vs one you feel is measly outside of your account getting the achievement?

personally, as a person who dont do acheivments anyway, unless by coincedence

i would not mind if they got rid of the reward totaly
cause its only there to fool people into believing they didnt just wast thier time

EDIT
infact, i find it more fustrating to expect a reward and get useless junk
than to know im not going to get anything in the first place*

if your at the appropiate lvl for the “event”, you rarely get anything usefull

high lvl exploring, or grinding out missed content, what ever you get is most likely
a waste of space, and not even worth vending

my belief is, if you do content, set for your lvl, you should get something you can use

if your at or near max lvl (80), you should get alternative reward

hey they can add 3 titles right there
one for content compleated while under lvled
one for content compleated at an appropiate lvl
one for content compleated at a high lvl

Yep, I gotta agree too. After fighting the “Claw” for what seems like a long time, only to find 2 blues and a green (approx) in the chest, it’s a little bit disappointing.

Prophet.6954:

What if they just take away the chests period, and it is strictly for achievement sake? Would you prefer no reward vs one you feel is measly outside of your account getting the achievement?

What is the point of such a question?

There is no reason to believe that there is any form of “ceiling limit” exists on what rewards that can be obtained from such encounters whereby players must either like what they have now, or have nothing at all.

Or are you simply just trying to imply that (in your opinion) people should just be happy with what (little) they got? Whilst the definition of “Fun” may be somewhat subjective, in general people often like to be rewarded for the effort they put into an MMO activity.

In short: if effort + time + risk vs reward isn’t balanced correctly, MMO players often won’t do it.

Mijinion.7168:

Prophet.6954:

What if they just take away the chests period, and it is strictly for achievement sake? Would you prefer no reward vs one you feel is measly outside of your account getting the achievement?

personally, as a person who dont do acheivments anyway, unless by coincedence

i would not mind if they got rid of the reward totaly
cause its only there to fool people into believing they didnt just wast thier time

if your at the appropiate lvl for the “event”, you rarely get anything usefull

high lvl exploring, or grinding out missed content, what ever you get is most likely
a waste of space, and not even worth vending

my belief is, if you do content, set for your lvl, you should get something you can use

if your at or near max lvl (80), you should get alternative reward

hey they can add 3 titles right there
one for content compleated while under lvled
one for content compleated at an appropiate lvl
one for content compleated at a high lvl

I gotta admit, I’m somewhat curious as to why obtainable “titles” are so few and far between in this game.

You’d think that at least the world boss fights would yield one or more titles (based on the amount of times you’ve taken that boss down). And that’s before you start looking at “<insert mob type here> slayer” type titles.

Some may think that a plethora of titles would somewhat diminish the “prestige” of owning one, I don’t think so. After all, if I saw another player with the title “Dragon Slayer” I wouldn’t mind.

My point here is that titles can be used as yet another way to “reward” players for accomplishing activities, tasks and goals without upsetting other parts of the game such as the economy, progression of equipment, etc, etc.

solanu.3784:

It is to be noted that the objective here is impossible to reach without at least 4k HP (due to the level down here) and the 50% falling damage trait.

Not to nitpick, but I’d like to point out that while I may have had just a smidgen above 4k health while doing this puzzle, the 50% falling damage trait is by no means necessary. There are several red eggs along the path that fully restore any falling damage you take. I’m actually not sure why you would even need 4k health unless you consistently get hit by the gryphons which insta-ends the attempt anyway. Falling damage is percent-based, not level or zone-based (though I can see how getting a low level there would be a nightmare).

Otherwise I mostly agree. If Splendid Chests have some kind of increased chance to produce rare/exotic items then it’s hardly noticeable outside of event-related chests as Magic Find has minimal effect outside of events. The promise of reward is simply not followed through on strongly enough in these scenarios (though again, event-related chests I’m fine with; I see nothing wrong with their potential rewards).

As I suggested in the Dungeons forums subset – unless the armor max stat system is revised – how about “earning a new skill” approach? you get to choose from the full list of skills (not only your class). the price should be steep (like x tokens from ALL dungeons) – but this will sure make you different and give new incentive to go to dungeons.

A simple solution is to have unique themed account bound mini-pet rewards (atleast for the jumping puzles), champion and other events should have the normal loot. For example a mini Griffon for the Griffonrook Run.
It covers most bases.
– The graphic is already in game, it just needs some scalling
– It’s a reward that can symbolise the puzzle itself, thusly unique.
– It’s desirable and an alternate incentive to do them.

Sure it doesn’t cover the re-playing of them but that isnt there now anyway.

they should introduce “set items” like in diablo, granted the runes are like set items but much easier to obtain. and they should be availible for all classes every 10 levels.