Showing Posts For Hidon.4680:
Agony is definitely a not an innovative mechanic and I agree with the OP.
Current mechanics are a combination of gear and skill (damage mitigation comes from defensive stats and proper use of abilities/rolling, dps is augmented by proper trait and spell selection, use of combo fields as well as raw damage stats).
Agony, on the other hand, has zero play strategy components and is purely mitigated through equipment. This is really a terrible idea because there is no differentiation or achievement based on play, only on gear. There is no sense of accomplishment in that.
honestly skill in a mmo like this in Pve dungeon is a misnomer. the only thing a vet has over a novice is experience..where to stand, what button to push, how far you can keep them apart, when to use the doodad to weaken the thingamabob, how to position the mob etc. None of this is true skill, its simply experience.
Pattern recognition and knowledge of how to counter mechanics are definitely skills that differentiate players in GW2. Dungeons require pattern recognition and memory.
Many games that require ‘skill’ are highly based on pattern recognition and memory, such as chess.
I can’t say for certain (nothing has been officially announced with the details you’re requesting), but I would be very surprised if they permanently destroyed any existing content.
Anything they decide to take out represents several (if not hundreds) hours of manpower and it doesn’t make sense to shrink the game.
I think by “one time event” they’re probably referring to a special event that will open up the new content.
Commander should be rewarded to those who have put a serious time investment into WvW pvp and demonstrated some semblance of skill there (maybe number of tokens collected or walls successfully sieged or something).
It should be an icon of someone that actually knows what they’re doing, not someone that decided to spend a bunch of gold.
I think it’s worth noting, that the claw of jormag provides way way more than 384 karma if you’re around for the full event.
He drops 4 crystals that provide 384 karma for each one destroyed (it’s relatively easy to run around and contribute to at least 3 of these 4 crystals), in addition to one final crystal that also gives 384 karma. After that you kill the claw of jormag for another 384 karma.
There is nothing wrong with the claw of jormag event. It’s actually immensely lucrative (and fun) to complete it.
Of all the dungeons I’ve run there has only been one boss that has totally brought me to my knees. The huntsman from story mode HotW.
I might be missing something about the fight, but I cannot get around his rapid attack pattern, especially if he focuses you with his flock of birds. This isn’t even taking into account his pet lizard, which pretty much has to be separated from him and killed on its own or you’re in for a world of pain.
With the reduced story mode rewards, no one wants to do story mode anymore. Except for people who need it in order to do explorable modes, no one is interested.
I spent an hour and a half today trying to find a group for HoTW story mode, bouncing between Frostgorge and Lion’s Arch a few times just in case anyone else was there. I gave up and did a few CoF runs, since I was lucky enough to complete the story mode before the patch.
I totally agree with Anet’s philosophies regarding dungeons. Exp modes should be difficult, and should require more skill and coordination than story modes. They deserve better rewards as well. But making the rewards completely worthless is not the answer. It makes it incredibly difficult for individuals who have not already done story mode to get anywhere with the dungeon experience.
I LOVE the dungeons! I just want to be able to run them.
Perhaps instead of the 60 tokens you receive on your normal run of an exp mode, you only get 20 for story? That would get people running story modes in order to help out people without feeling like they are wasting their time and money. What do you guys think?
Thanks.
I think part of the problem lies in HotW itself. The story mode is probably harder than all three explore modes put together. That last boss…. yikes…..
I think story mode should provide enough tokens that with 1-2 runs you could pick up a rare item from the token vendor instead of the exotics.
Crafting is a side activity that allows you to level from the comfort of a crafting station, and in the end, construct a legendary weapon if you desire one.
Crafting will not make you loads of cash (in most cases it will drain your cash) and it will not allow you to make your own armor sets for a significant discount compared to their trading post price.
In some niche markets you can definitely turn a small profit, but in most scenarios, this will not be the case.
The key to loving underwater combat is to roll an engineer. Everything will fold to your underwater grenades and bombs.
I think they’re the only class that might actually have a dps increase when fighting underwater.
Dungeons are the last bastion of PvE challenge in this entire game. So far, they’re really the only activity that requires the player to have a knowledge of all of their weapon and class skills. The tuning will come with time, but they should NOT be nerfed across the board.
Granted, I haven’t done all of the dungeons, I have done AC and HotW explore modes. They were all hard but not impossible (some were easier than others). The strategies needed to complete the dungeons are simple, but have little room for error.
So far I have been quite pleased with the experience other than getting bugged numbers of tokens at the end, but I can overlook that for now because the dungeons are fun.
By the way, I did all of these explore modes in PUGS, and we finished them successfully. In a dedicated dungeon group, I feel like they could definitely be speed run.
I think putting them all at the end is a mistake. However, back-loading the tokens is not. There should be incentive to complete the dungeon. The issue now is that the solution is not balanced. People are getting kicked or dropping group before the end and receiving no reward for their time spent.
If Anet wants to reward 60 tokens per dungon, I don’t see a problem with a breakdown as follows:
Boss #1 – 10 tokens
Boss #2 – 10 tokens
Final Boss – 10 tokens + 30 token dungeon completion reward
At the very least, players get something for completing the first two bosses, but it is obviously far more beneficial to finish the dungeon as over half of the tokens are rewarded for completion.
I’ve only done a couple explore mode dungeons but I’d like to pipe in with some things that helped (my runs were relatively quick and clean).
1. Make use of combo fields that allow you to quickly apply cc. Also, pay attention to the debuffs on the enemy. You don’t need ventrilo to coordinate cc if you pay attention to whether debuffs have been applied on the UI and aim for constant uptime.
2. Rebind your dodge button to something that you can easily and quickly access. “V” was awkward for me so I put it on a mouse button, and it made all the difference. You have to be very quick to roll out in dungeons.
3. Don’t be shy about changing your skills/weapons between every pull and boss. Bring in a full arsenal so you can use the full gamut of your abilities. In HotW, I made massive use of the staff, scepter, hammer and greatsword.
4. Bring a half decent underwater weapon. These weapons are often neglected but there are and will be underwater sections. Don’t be bringing in a piddly weapon 30 lvls lower than your character.
5. Boon uptime and condition removal is king. The first thing I do when I get into dungeons is switch to boon applying abilities and condition removers. Constant uptime on might, damage reduction and regeneration makes a massive difference.
6. Run with some toughness/vitality gear. You don’t have to sacrifice all of your damage gear, but you should be able to survive 2-3 hits from trash enemies (or 1 solid untelegraphed hit from bosses).
I’m a tad frustrated with WvW at the moment as well, but I suspect Anet will not be improving the ranged options for guardian. It seems like one of the critical trade-offs built into the class in exchange for other abilities. I know this can be debated, but I suspect this is the philosophy behind the decision. Guardians seem to be very strong in small scale skirmishes and defending checkpoints which is reflected in sPvP.
That being said, I personally believe the real issues with guardians in WvW lies in how people are rewarded. A lot of WvW combat takes place zerg vs zerg, and the first melee in the mix simply gets obliterated no matter how defensive or well equipped you are, thus many large scale encounters turn into range vs range battles. You’re not going to drop down off the wall to melee the attacking force because in most cases you’ll be instantly reduced to a bloody smear. This makes it nearly impossible for a guardian to score killing blows which is the primary way people are rewarded with tokens. This really needs to change if guardians are going to remain the way they are.
I personally feel that the entire WvW token system should be removed and replaced with a currency similar to karma, with which you would obtain small amounts when an ally that you’ve recently healed and/or buffed kills an enemy. You would have to get more of this currency for killing (it’s easier to spread boons around than it is to kill another player), but at the very least you could get some credit for hanging back and supporting allies in situations that are limiting given the guardians poor ranged options.
This system would also greatly benefit everyone other that guardians, encouraging armies to spread healing and boons liberally to maximize rewards.
GW2 "endgame" model is fine. Execution doesn't make sense tho, problem and solution.
Posted by: Hidon.4680
I don’t know why I can’t seem to get the quote functionality working.
@Apos
I didn’t state anywhere that people shouldn’t be compensated proportionately for their time investment in farming. As a matter of fact, both of my posts are in agreement with you….
My point was that it doesn’t matter whether farming is made easier or more difficult because those with more time to farm will always have a leg up on those with less time to farm, as it is with nearly every activity.
Was there ever a goal other than having fun?
Are MMO players trained to play for progression rather than for enjoyment?
I happen to think that progression in the life of a normal person engaged in a hobby, an entertaining endeavor, a pursuit, or life in-general is something (that pursuit) that is met with very rewarding outcomes; the outcome varies depending on who you are.
There are some folks that enjoy a pursuit, some entertainment, a life and hobby, but without progression or a rewarding experience; perhaps something that is shallow or non-progressive. Many might call that person and the engagement stale, dormant, dull, stagnant, foolish, or lazy.
Depends on what one believes, I guess.
I guess the question is, when you play guild wars 2 how are you progressing? I think there is lots of progression, but it’s not in raw stats. The rewarding outcome is the reflection on the experience, absorbing the details of the world, learning new ways to play, the satisfaction of solving a puzzle, conquering someone skillfully in pvp or discovering a new strategy to defeat a dungeon and getting a unique skin for your armor.
As soon as the superior stats are removed from the said rewards for accomplishing the above, it feels less satisfying. But why is that?
I find it greatly ironic that in WoW, superior stats served no function but to usher in the next tier of content. Stat inflation was an illusion of progression implemented purely as a method of gating content mathematically. Showing a bigger number is a very tangible method of gauging progress, so it was kept as a feature. It’s trickery.
Now that these stat boundaries have been somewhat reduced in GW2, a bunch of players want them back as if they did anything in the first place other than limit what content they could experience.
As far as a play experience is concerned, the only thing stat progression really did was allow players to crush dated, dry content or relax the consequences of play mistakes.
I think that GW2 is the first MMO in a while that emphasizes the journey more than the destination.
Progression should be about achievement and developing skills, not increasing numbers. I think people are not used to this largely because of WoW and the standard it has created. The question I’d like to ask is, how many people would raid if there was no loot at all other than a vanity items like a pet or sparkle wand? I think there are people that would, but the numbers would dwindle significantly.
The fact is, MMO players love having gigantic, godly sets of armor with lightning bolts flying out of their nostrils non-stop and crushing entire beginner zones with a wave of their divine hand. I think it feeds the ego a little bit. This form of progression is rather blunt and obvious when compared to something more subtle, like improving communication or coordination.
I have not yet tried any sPvP but I have dabbled in WvW as a guardian. I think the main issue with WvW is that it really does not reward what a guardian is optimized in doing.
I typically run with a greatsword and staff. I use an bit of a strange build (10/15/5/30/10) for the virtue buffs, shorter consecrations, refreshing virtue of justice on kills and a situationally spammable blind. I’ve gone 30 in to honor for larger, healing symbols, 2-handed weapon cooldown reduction and the extra health.
I have a mix of knight’s and carrion exotics (I like to diversify a little bit rather than pour into one source of damage, even though precision/power/crit damage have superior scaling).
Lack of range is difficult to deal with, but I’m relatively difficult to kill with my gear set, and I can apply a huge number of boons/healing at range with enough fire power to kill anyone that tries to jump into melee via greatsword.
The issues I’m having are that guardians seem to excel at supporting teammates, holding choke points, delaying stragglers so the zerg can pick them off and generally just being a relatively threatening obnoxious nuisance to the enemy. But with no long range burst, it’s difficult to actually get rewarded since you need to tag and kill people to gather tokens. Karma and experience aren’t a problem, but landing killing blows is quite difficult and in some cases counter to productive guardian play in WvW. I have considered going full dps, but with no effective ranged weapon I think it’d just be an invitation to get slaughtered in the field. At least with my current gear, I can survive focus fire from 3-4 opponents for a reasonable time.
I think guardian in WvW is a little less straight forward than other classes, and unfortunately is not compensated equivalently for supportive play.
(edited by Hidon.4680)
GW2 "endgame" model is fine. Execution doesn't make sense tho, problem and solution.
Posted by: Hidon.4680
@dybryd
I did actually address that in the rest of my post and I agree that it’s a problem. I’d love to get competitive experience, karma and gear in down-leveled zones.
I reread the original posting and point 2a makes a case for easing the difficulty of farming stating that it renders casual gamers irrelevant economically. I disagree with this point. No matter how easy or difficult farming is, your relevance will always be in proportion to your time expenditure.
I’d still love to be able to explore the other zones and be competitively rewarded for participating in the events and heart quests occurring there. It would be hugely helpful in spreading the population throughout the game world.
You was “leading” the group? Everyone always talks about leading them. You sure you wasn’t just being plain old bossy and annoying? Demanding this that and whatever?
A player did “something terrible” and you said something? Yeah, can tell right there I bet it was condescending
Then you got your comeuppance, there’s actually a currency in this game, it’s called Karma.
To top it all off, because some irrelevant group didn’t stand for it, you’re not going to kick the next innocent person who screws up? I bet you NEVER screw up, I bet on your first time you get it perfect.
And you “demand” that it get’s looked at? By who, Anet?
Yeah, everyone’s innocent on this forum, never screw up and the best player out there and it’s never ever their fault, no no, can’t be. I mean, just look at your attitude, we can totally see you’re the one who got screwed here..right?
We don’t know the exact details of the scenario, and whether or not the criticism was condescending. However, one thing is for certain, you should not be able to kick someone during a boss fight. That is definitively a kitten move no matter how you slice it.
GW2 "endgame" model is fine. Execution doesn't make sense tho, problem and solution.
Posted by: Hidon.4680
In regards to making farming easier or more difficult, I don’t think it would change anything. The most important limiting factor in the GW2 economy is player time, so if you can’t play much, you will always be at a disadvantage to those that can play much more (despite the anti-farming code). I think it’s more important that casual players always have multiple methods of gaining entry into the economy.
However, I totally agree that rewards need to be improved globally so that the end-game emphasis is not placed on Orr. The rewards in all other zones should be scaled up enough as you level so that they are worth visiting and exploring without feeling cheated or inefficient. Although end game raw material nodes can’t be placed in low level zones, experience and karma rewards should be scaled up to the player’s real level in addition to weapon and armor drops.
I would love to go to other zones and explore them entirely because the world is huge and beautiful. There’s so many things to see. However, with the expense of travelling around, a limited play time schedule and such daunting resource requirements for some of the exotic gear, I feel like I need to optimize my time in high level zones so that I can continue to make progress towards these goals.
I WANT to make progress towards these goals anywhere. Orr is the most difficult zone, so I think it should offer the best rewards. However, other lower level zones should offer rewards competitive to a level 80 character so they can achieve progression via exploring the massive world.
Additionally, dungeons are the closest thing in this game to requiring any sort of group coordination and alternative strategizing. I think with the increased token drops in the latest patch, they’ve reached a pretty good compromise between gaining dungeon gear at a reasonable pace versus ensuring it has some value and requires effort to obtain. In this case effort equates to time, the ability to play and the ability to coordinate a party. If anything, I think they should add more diverse dungeon loot and make dungeons more mechanically difficult.
(edited by Hidon.4680)
I’m level 80 and I’m still getting crushed in WvW. Then again, I don’t believe I’m playing optimally or know all of the mechanics and strategies that are effective.
I get the feeling WvW has an acclimation period in which you will find out what roles you’re capable of filling and what kind of actions your should be prioritizing. I suspect that this is way more important than being level 80 with a full set of exotics (although I’m sure that can’t hurt).
Downscaling is fine in 99% of areas, but there are a few places where it downscales you to , say, 40 but the mobs around are 43.
Should it be scaling you lower than nearby mobs? I’m not sure if this was designed on purpose or if it’s a bug. It’s not a huge problem, but it seems like a bug to me.
I think there are small pockets in areas where this happens and it’s not intended. I’ve experienced this effect, and it appears to be quite rare. It’s probably an oversight and should be reported.
Just to add my own two cents to this thread, when I am downscaled in to +2 levels, I still completely destroy monsters in the area because of the superior gear set I built up at level 80. This becomes very apparent when you play with someone just starting out in that particular level range.
If renewed focus was disconnected from refreshing the cooldowns on virtues, then it would be in need of serious retooling.
However, with the proper trait investment it becomes just ludicrously good as echra pointed out above. I would like it if I could move while invincible, but it’s a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things.
I’m surprised that so many people don’t like renewed focus.
With 5 points in radiance and 5 points in virtues, I can blind all enemies around me and set them on fire and grant stacks of might to allies, then apply aegis to my nearby allies as well as give them 6 seconds of -33% damage, pulse heal everyone for 1800 health and apply regeneration and then do the whole cycle over again after being completely invincible for 3 seconds.
Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me for an elite on a 90 second cooldown.
There is absolutely zero point to crafting unless you want to level from the comfort of your crafting station and/or build a legendary weapon.
You’ll make more money in the long run by selling your raw materials (especially cloth, ore and fine crafting materials).
If I were to take up a crafting discipline for experience gains, it’d be jewelcrafting as all of the materials can be farmed from nodes. Additionally, leather and wood are dirt cheap (just over vendor price in many cases) and I’d be tempted to utilize them as well for leveling.
Last time I checked gossamer scraps were around 4 silver a piece, orichalcum ore was around 2.5 silver a piece, ancient logs were about 1 silver a piece and hardened leather scraps were around 10-20 copper each. I think that speaks for itself.
I find the responses here to be very interesting because I really enjoyed all three zones in Orr. That’s not to say they don’t have problems (which have been outlined above).
As far as the art/music direction of the zone goes, I think it’s one of the coolest areas I’ve seen in an MMO. The concept of a destroyed, underwater kingdom that’s risen from the depths and is filled with undead, is so Lovecraftian that I can’t help but enjoy it.
I like the mob density (it’s supposed to be an overwhelming horde of undead), however, the respawn rate is too high. If you’re going to have to cut through swaths of enemies to get to your objective, they should not be closing in on you from behind faster than you can hack them up, and this is in nearly full exotic gear.
All three zones also are very buggy as has been stated. I’ve been unable to get my 100% exploration in 2/3 zones because of broken skill points. Many of the events don’t scale well down to small groups of players and will completely wipe them out. This is a big problem because many of these areas are not densely populated with players.
The enemies could also use a little more variety, in type and abilities. There are two enemy types that are simply annoying to deal with. Risen putrifiers (the much loved ranged grip enemy) and risen casters (the ones that fire the shadow hands at your non-stop from miles away with an aggro radius larger than Africa).
That being said, I enjoy the zones enough that I continue to play there are do events. They could be upgraded from good zones to phenomenal zones with just a little tweaking.
While I won’t state which MMO’s I think are best, I don’t think I could go back to WoW now that I’ve played GW2.
I think that many people that hate on GW2 for various reasons (no grinding allowed, lack of the holy trinity, no end game raids) do so because they have been trained to view fun within a very specific mindset. The gear treadmill and never ending daily quests is all that many people know. I experienced this, and was hesitant at first to purchase GW2. However, the focus on experiencing content rather than just rapidly digesting content is the most significant and novel approach to the genre that has come about in years.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how the game and community will develop in the coming years.
I think constant hero development and goals are an integral part to keeping an mmo fun and interesting. However, these do not need to come as stat increases (and I really like that the developers are not including a loot treadmill type dungeon tier system).
New unique armor models, novelty items, challenge events, timed dungeons, rare recipes, jumping puzzles, or non-stat bonuses (like special items that give you +2-3 crafting levels upon consumption) and crazy random items for rare non-formulaic crafting discoveries are all ways to promote uniqueness without just increasing stats by +10 through sequential dungeons.
These achievements would stand as trophies and vanity items, displaying your expertise and time investment in the game.
Enemy npcs in mmos have always been more dangerous for melee than ranged because most enemies primarily deliver their damage through melee blows. Thus melee dps are always in the danger zone. This is an irrefutable fact.
I think designers try to circumvent this issue by making melee more ‘hardy’ or giving them more tools to deal with the increased damage. I primarily play a guardian, so most of these tools for my class come in the form of applying aegis, blinding enemies or using damage reduction fields and shouts. However, with the current tuning, it is possible to get 2-shot through a 33% damage reduction field wearing level appropriate gear as a guardian.
I believe there’s nothing wrong with melee having to roll out and use a ranged weapon while defensive skills become available, but if that’s the case, then to balance group class composition (so you can truly bring any combination of people you want to a dungeon), melee must be able to do more burst damage to compensate for their reduced uptime on the enemies.
I think the real issue here is that one-shots can be neigh instantaneous so if you don’t have 100% cover under blinds and blocks, you will not be able to react to the incoming damage. This is NOT fun for melee.
Melee should be forced out of range by high damage, frequent attacks. However, these attacks should be televised so that melee can make strategic use of the dodge mechanics in this game rather than being reduced to a bloody smear by a quick melee attack from a lightning fast enemy. Regular melee swings should be unavoidable under circumstances in which a properly geared melee player will have enough time to roll out of the damage and recover. One-shotting abilities should provide just enough time so that a melee can roll out if they recognize the animation and have reasonable reflexes. This generates a satisfying melee experience that calls on the use of all defensive, offensive, cc and dodging mechanics to survive. It calls on knowledge of monster animations and abilities, and finally requires a player to manage all of their cooldowns and cycle stuns/blinds/blocks to maximize melee uptime before falling back on heals.
A preferable alternative to melee doing massive burst damage and ranged having moderate sustained damage (which can cause issues in pvp) is to just implement mechanics on ALL dungeon enemies that randomly target the ranged or quickly close the distance (rather than only delivering massive melee blows). Thus the ranged will have to be on the move just as much as melee. Having the ranged take enemy attention periodically also relieves pressure off the melee, giving them precious time to reset their cooldowns.
Either melee damage needs to exceed ranged damage by an amount that creates equivalent average damage between melee and ranged sources, or all enemies must have mechanics that put equivalent pressure on ranged players, giving ample breathing room for melee classes.
I believe if monsters had their melee damage toned down just slightly (just enough for melee to stand toe to toe for maybe 2-3) and had televised distance attacks to force ranged classes to move more, it would greatly enrich the combat experience for everyone.
(edited by Hidon.4680)
I actually really appreciate the staff. It has a very varied ability set. That being said the damage is definitely too low to be used as a stand alone weapon, which I believe is a flaw. It shouldn’t be a powerhouse because it has so many great support skills, but it should be at least reasonable as a stand alone combat option.
If the #1 cone was narrowed along with a damage increase and the #2 orb both traveled faster and did more damage, I think the staff would be a combat contender with other 2-handed weapons.
This would be fantastic. I actually thought it was a bug that I couldn’t bring up a preview option when I was initially viewing the trading post. Part of the fun of buying new items is mixing and matching armor sets for transmutation.
This is definitely a problem. I’ve tried to fill a support role on my guardian in many events and wound up with a bronze contribution rating and next to no enemy drops.
Healing, resurrecting others and applying boons/removing conditions from players should be rewarded heavily in all circumstances. Doing otherwise teaches players to play poorly. If you heal a player or somehow aid them while they’re fighting enemies, you should get access to loot on anything they had tagged when you executed the supportive action.
I’ve never looked at crafting as a way to make an income. It’s not impossible, but very difficult with a market of this size because the products being offered are limited in scope. The game dictates what can be produced and there are hundreds of thousands of people able to produce, thus the only items that have any value will be the ones that require the most time to gather to make the aforementioned items.
In the current state of the game, these are of course fine crafting materials.
Crafting should be an alternative, interesting way to level your character in addition to providing helpful items and bonuses in return for the time and gold investment. The problem is, crafting doesn’t really provide a significantly valuable return on the investment in most cases. And if a particular recipe does happen to sell well, it’s only a matter of time before other people catch on in an open market comprised of millions of players.
For crafting to work well, I believe the following additions should be made to each:
1. All crafts should be able to produce a set of items that are of rare quality every 50-100 points, for very few materials, that are bind on account. Presently, world gear is easily obtainable that obliterates anything that can be crafted from 1-399 on a gold for gold basis. Crafters need an incentive to keep their craft in line with their character level.
2. All crafts should be able to make bind on account vanity items that change the appearance of their character or give interesting flavour bonuses. This game is about fun, so people will spend their gold on things like this that make them unique or open up more variety for their characters. Additional content that expands on these fun little bonuses will provide large incentive to level up all trades.
3. All crafts need to have their fine material and cloth requirements reduced slightly. People will bite my head off for proposing that crafting becomes easier, but one only needs to take a passing glance at the trading post to realize there’s an imbalance. Fine materials and cloth are 3-10x more expensive than any other ingredient. The counter argument to this change is that making these limited ingredients more available will tank the value of products that utilize them. But of course we all know that this won’t happen because the raw materials are already far more valuable than the products being crafted, which presently sell for barely above vendor price.
I’ve given up on crafting until I hit 80. It’s senseless to waste time farming low level materials when I can hit 80, do event quests and more challenging content, simultaneously gather high level materials, sell those high level materials and then reinvest my silver/gold in those items that I need to craft. In the end I’ll get more karma and experience this way and more value for my time. Low level fine materials are too difficult to acquire at the moment.