Guild Wars 2

So I was under the impression that a reward track was included as a means to get a Gift of Battle without removing the vendor. I went to find the vendor and it does not exist. Am I missing something or is the only way to get this Gift of Battle by doing WvW now?

In the past, I have done quite a bit of WvW but the interest is no longer there. To me it just feels like the same circuit over and over again. If I want to make one more legendary, am I forced to do something I don’t really enjoy anymore and take up a WvW “slot” now? Because if so, I’m just going to go in, get to the max “tick cap” and AFK til the meter starts to go down again then tag another event quickly. It seems pretty counterproductive to have someone like myself go in there just to eventually get the reward track done when someone who actually wants to be in there contributing to the server could be.

If this is the only means of getting this done currently, are there others that people know about that will be coming out in the future?

reward track is the only means

Yes its the only way because building legendaries is SUPPOSED to be about mastering the game at least to some extent. It takes Very little time to complete one reward track. But sure, join the other pve crybabies wasting wvw space by idling because they don’t want to actually earn it.

Jushiohara.9140:

Yes its the only way because building legendaries is SUPPOSED to be about mastering the game at least to some extent. It takes Very little time to complete one reward track. But sure, join the other pve crybabies wasting wvw space by idling because they don’t want to actually earn it.

It takes 8-10 hours of efficient playing to finish a reward track. That’s not long in the grand scheme of things for building a legendary, but it’s definitely long if you thought all you needed to do was visit a vendor.

Plus, ANet never said exactly why they changed it. They mentioned that they would in patch notes one day and a few months later, they did as advertised. We’re just speculating as to the reasons. It is in line with other changes that they’ve made, to encourage (some would say: force) us to play actively by removing passive rewards from the game.

Anyhow, OP, like many players, yes, you missed the announcement and missed the notice in the patch notes and no, no more vendor.

It’s a bit over 5 hours if you use the guild buff and XP booster. I got 2 gifts pretty easily just playing naturally over the course of a week.

kittens sake not this again. Yes, it will take like a week of casual WvWing (or a day of zerging) to get the gift. So. What.

WvWers that want a legendary have to spend probably 3x that casual time doing PvE world exploration. If you think a short reward track is so horrible you have zero perspective.

All these considerate PvErs worried about taking up slots.

I have to take up a pve slot for weeks when i want one. couple of hours in wvw is nothing compared to that. PvE hypocrits.

Except that taking up a PvE slot has no meaning as there is an infinite amount. Listen, if there was a way that you didn’t have to do map completion, I’d be behind that too. I don’t agree that players have to be forced to do something they don’t want to. Perhaps including a few reward track steps for that mastery would be an idea. Unfortunately it’s not the case right now.

Thanks for the response. Time to afk!

Personally, I think the term “forced” is too heavy handed and thrown too casually around.

As someone that will never do some PvE content, I am fine with the fact that some things aren’t available to me. In fact, I think some reward tracks contain dungeon tokens, and I actually don’t think I deserve tokens because I think that to do various rewards, you need to do the corresponding content. That’s why maps also have their own currency. I also didn’t think they needed to offer the collections stuff for heroics either, but alas, I suppose that is ascended gear related.

And yes, that standard can change. They updated dailies to reward 2 gold, and that was fine. But of course, one can’t always accept changes that benefit them.

When it comes to think of things that actually affect gameplay, such as vertical progression, it is imperative that these things be accessible to a wider audience. This is why the stat progressive curve in this game is fairly shallow and new content has been balanced assuming level 80s with exotic stats. That’s why ascended gear, the highest stat gear at this time, is available via crafting. Elite specializations are something that drastically affects combat as well, and it made little sense for people to gain an advantage in WvW by not playing in WvW. It can be argued these things are needed for a player to stay competitive.

But in what context can you argue that you “need” a legendary for anything? There is really no expectation of any of these things towards a legendary. They are entirely optional, and only provide a skin (with a fairly useless stat change). Legendaries were intended to be both a time and gold sink so yes, there is no guarantee it’ll only cover content one likes. I mean, it’d be silly for WvW’ers to expect they can ignore half the requirements for a legendary because they don’t PvE. But there you have it. You can be forced to do things to get a legendary, because you aren’t forced to get one.

Of course, you don’t have to accept this. It’s fine to ask Arenanet to ask for potential substitutes (they’ll probably lock it behind a raid though). However, this is one of the situations where they are under no obligation to provide it nor should there be a guilt trip like many others have down. Personally, I would suggest having an alternative in PvP, or maybe allowing a crafting substitute for it. So I do urge people to keep bringing the matter up, but in a respectful manner.

Also, there are not infinite amount of slots in pve maps, but that’s for another day.

As a side note, I’ve made a lot of posts on removing map completion from WvW. That was on the grounds of exploration not really fitting in as a theme in the context of WvW, and also the great imbalance that comes with it along with the impracticality of it at times in actual WvW situations. Notice there’s none of a persecution complex in that argument mainly because I had no stake in the matter. Hopefully, people can do the same.

While I understand your point about a Legendary not being a need – you’re right, it’s certainly a want – but in my situation, I have accomplished almost everything that I can think of at the top of my head except for continuing on with some Legendary weapon progression. Currently, it’s one of few things that keep me engaged in the game. Frankly, it is also something I enjoy for the most part. I just don’t appreciate having to do something that negatively effects both sides of the player-base.

As I am writing this, I have AFK’d for about 5 hours. I’ve put a solid dent in my reward track but I do feel for those that would rather have my spot in a queued server. I’ve had a few nasty PM’s and a few nasty remarks in say chat but they shouldn’t even be directed at me. I’m AFKing here because ArenaNet decided it was OK to do so by implementing a reward track.

Despite my post sounding frustrated or angry, I’m really not. Yes, I would much rather be actually doing something I enjoy in-game with my time but I really have zero issues watching Netflix while I AFK for several hours. I just think it’s important to bring light of something that should be changed (again). I too feel for those that are WvW’ers that do not wish to go to PvE to get map exploration. There should be options for you too. Perhaps Map Exploration reward tracks. Mind you, it might have to take you several reward tracks to complete to compare it to regular map exploration. I just feel like this was a poor change on ANet’s part for all parties.

What they should do is change the Gift of Battle Reward track to Gift of Exploration, and add the GoB vendor back in.

The PvE players can stay out, and WvW players can stay in. The only problem is if PvE players who do not want to WvW come in because some jabrony calclated you get the gift 2.5% faster in WvW. But details like that could be a trivial calculation to make it longer in WvW which would keep everyone happy, and segregated from paying things outside their comfort zone.

weskay.9217:

As I am writing this, I have AFK’d for about 5 hours. I’ve put a solid dent in my reward track but I do feel for those that would rather have my spot in a queued server. I’ve had a few nasty PM’s and a few nasty remarks in say chat but they shouldn’t even be directed at me. I’m AFKing here because ArenaNet decided it was OK to do so by implementing a reward track.

You know your right. They did decide that it’s ok to afk. They should make you play wvw. They should make gift of battle only obtainable by wvw achievements( see yak slapper and royal guard) not some phony reward track. I’d say that’s about as grueling as doing map completion.

Eval.2371:

weskay.9217:

As I am writing this, I have AFK’d for about 5 hours. I’ve put a solid dent in my reward track but I do feel for those that would rather have my spot in a queued server. I’ve had a few nasty PM’s and a few nasty remarks in say chat but they shouldn’t even be directed at me. I’m AFKing here because ArenaNet decided it was OK to do so by implementing a reward track.

You know your right. They did decide that it’s ok to afk. They should make you play wvw. They should make gift of battle only obtainable by wvw achievements( see yak slapper and royal guard) not some phony reward track. I’d say that’s about as grueling as doing map completion.

And that points out another problem. It may seem like a good idea to be passive aggressive and find ways to game the system, but then eventually Anet sees this (yes, they can read this) and decides to plug in the loopholes. Then it just gets worse because the real issue isn’t addressed.

Eval.2371:

You know your right. They did decide that it’s ok to afk. They should make you play wvw. They should make gift of battle only obtainable by wvw achievements( see yak slapper and royal guard) not some phony reward track. I’d say that’s about as grueling as doing map completion.

They could just make a gift of battle the reward for WvW map completion. It’d make a lot more sense that way, actually.

Also, WvW reward tracks need to progress based on raw WXP earned, because they are awful to progress compared to their PVP counterparts (which progress based on rank points earned).

Here’s a great post about the Gift of Battle’s current acquisition method (how, why, what, etc).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Gift-of-Battle-What-to-know/6280765

Here’s an idea: go afk in Edge of the Mists. You get the Reward Track and you’re not hogging a slot.