Guild Wars 2

krookie.6378:

Columba.9730:

krookie.6378:

RNG grinding is one of my most hated “features” of MMOs. Especially when the grind revolves around an upgrade item. When it comes to GW2, it feels like a step backwards in design.

If it’s any consolation, there is a pretty painless way to solo grind for the essence. Get your magic find gear and go into FotM. You need the swamp fractal, the one with all the traps. Now just continuously kill the mosquitoes, fireflies and spiders there. The respawn rate is pretty fast so you’re basically constantly moving, with very little downtime. I just did it for about an hour and it dropped from a firefly for me.

Now I need 60g+ for the 250 vials of powerful blood and about 10g for the ectos. Those are the bigger grind.

Thanks. So you didn’t need to finish the kitten thing, and could you solo it? Second, can you recall the name?

I had no luck with FotM. I ran it a bunch of times and I’m still stuck on difficulty level 1 due to people leaving half way through. I pretty much gave up on it completely. Running it for over 2 hours just to have someone leave at the end sucks.

Anyway, I farmed the non elite mobs in the swamp fractal. That is the easiest one to farm as there are no elites, except for the champion drake and the Mossman but both of them can be easily avoided.

Just start where the 3 tree trunks are and just kill the mobs in a circle: spiders->mosquitoes->fireflies. There are 3 of each mob type and they respawn really fast, so by the time you killed the last firefly, the spiders are already respawned. Those are the only mobs that drop anything, so don’t waste you time with anything else. Spiders are the only hostile ones but all are pretty easy.

thanks much. I will try it. could you solo it? was it named swamp somthing?

bigbobpataki.4796:

Columba.9730:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Adding new rings and back pieces that are slightly better then existing ones certianly changed the whole philosphy of the game huh.

I don’t consider 20% plus improvements to be slight.

Where are you seeing that?

Multiple threads where people have done the side by side math.

I will be a have not, pushed to the back of the bus. Can’t even get groups to do the fractal level 1 anymore.

Skaag.2954:

Just allow us to get the same things purely thru WvW that PvErs have and can bring into our WvW zones. That is what I believe most of us expected coming into the game based on the developer supported hype.

Telling me to go farm gold or grind dungeons to get the same choices others have is not what was promised.

All they can say is “over time” which is completely unacceptable. They should have introduced wvwvw rewards with this from day one.

yes. they installed a monetization chief from the owner to drive better revenues.

bigbobpataki.4796:

Adding new rings and back pieces that are slightly better then existing ones certianly changed the whole philosphy of the game huh.

I don’t consider 20% plus improvements to be slight.

“Over time” is an unacceptable answer. Please explain when you plan to release this so that some of us can plan our time accordingly. If it’s more than a month, then you disadvantage those who hate dungeons.

I understand that I cannot purchase the essence required to get the best back pack now, so I have no choice but to grind dungeons, praying to the rng gods. I don’t consider that fun. Thank you.

monepipi.5160:

$60 = ~8 movies = ~16 hours
$60 = skyrim = a few days/weeks of entertainment
$60 = GW2 = ~3 months worth of playtime already

Seriously some of you guys complain as though the folks at ANET owe you 1 million dollars, everyone else is enjoying the new content——FOTM is so much fun, thumbs up to whoever made it. It plays like a puzzle game without hordes of trash mobs. Awesome. <3

Fine, you grinders got yours, where’s mine? I don’t care that they added content. I don’t like the better gear, but at least give me a way to get it without being forced to do things I hate. Don’t tell me the dungeons are fun. I tried them. I hate them.

honesty and integrity. are those too much to ask?

Yes, if I could get this stuff in WvWvW or pve outside dungeons, I’d be happier. However, they are bent on forcing me to do dungeons.

krookie.6378:

RNG grinding is one of my most hated “features” of MMOs. Especially when the grind revolves around an upgrade item. When it comes to GW2, it feels like a step backwards in design.

If it’s any consolation, there is a pretty painless way to solo grind for the essence. Get your magic find gear and go into FotM. You need the swamp fractal, the one with all the traps. Now just continuously kill the mosquitoes, fireflies and spiders there. The respawn rate is pretty fast so you’re basically constantly moving, with very little downtime. I just did it for about an hour and it dropped from a firefly for me.

Now I need 60g+ for the 250 vials of powerful blood and about 10g for the ectos. Those are the bigger grind.

Thanks. So you didn’t need to finish the kitten thing, and could you solo it? Second, can you recall the name?

They haven’t provided me a way to get this gear without doing dungeons.

They refuse to answer this. I think that’s your answer (no it isn’t).

Phy.2913:

Really, WvW. Are people in full exo stomping everyone below 79? Are 80’s in masterwork getting roflstomped?

Well, if you don’t know what you are doing in WvWvW, that could happen. Some of us play small group wvwvw.

Phy.2913:

Columba.9730:

RhysSebastian.7651:

Ahhh, so the solution would be to make it possible for Infusion based gear to be buyable from other players. I mean it would still require you to grind in some way (which we do anyways, for money or for fun) but would still allow people who do not want to run dungeons to remain viable.

Thanks for the insight guys.

I find it surprising so many people are opposed to having more stuff to do in a game though lol. I think i get the picture tho.

As for the comment about legendaries, I mean legendaries are optional. You arent severly detrimenting any group by not having a legendary. I have some faith that ANET isnt designing dungeons with everyone having a legendary in mind lol. I for one dont have th etime or desire to farm legendaries, I find ascension gear a bit more feasible for me to attain.

Great job on the thread so far guys

ascendants aren’t optional, yet I have to grind dungeons to get them to compete. I hate dungeons. This violates their promise to me that there would be multiple ways to get gear. I would be happy to pay a $30/month sub to avoid this nonsense.

Compete with what? If you don’t do dungeons you don’t need this gear, and they haven’t broken any promise about multiple paths. There’s no way in hell I would pay 30$ a month for less content, when I can get great content for free.

I need them for WvWvW, those without this gear will get stomped. Fine, don’t pay $30/month. Let some of us pay then and avoid this misery.

If they haven’t broken promises about multiple paths, where are my options to get this stuff without grinding dungeons, which I hate???

Nar.8327:

Columba.9730:

are these things tradable – the essences?

Nope. Pure design genius, right there.

Swell. So to get the superior back items (much much better than current exotics), I must grind dungeons. man, this sucks.

The root cause behind this dramatic shift is financial. They weren’t earning enough money. I have always been willing to pay a monthly sub for this game (before now). WHat if some of us could pay a monthly sub and be given the option of buying this gear or even some of the critical components via gems?

ALternatively, if money is the issue, allow us to buy this stuff via gems. It’s a win win….win (The Office) Those who love the grinds can grind and get rewards. Those who hate grinds can do what they love. ANet makes more money.

RhysSebastian.7651:

Ahhh, so the solution would be to make it possible for Infusion based gear to be buyable from other players. I mean it would still require you to grind in some way (which we do anyways, for money or for fun) but would still allow people who do not want to run dungeons to remain viable.

Thanks for the insight guys.

I find it surprising so many people are opposed to having more stuff to do in a game though lol. I think i get the picture tho.

As for the comment about legendaries, I mean legendaries are optional. You arent severly detrimenting any group by not having a legendary. I have some faith that ANET isnt designing dungeons with everyone having a legendary in mind lol. I for one dont have th etime or desire to farm legendaries, I find ascension gear a bit more feasible for me to attain.

Great job on the thread so far guys

ascendants aren’t optional, yet I have to grind dungeons to get them to compete. I hate dungeons. This violates their promise to me that there would be multiple ways to get gear. I would be happy to pay a $30/month sub to avoid this nonsense.

are these things tradable – the essences?

In the threadnaught on this, it’s clear that Nexon, the partial owner of Ncsoft has inserted someone into Anet to improve monetization. I think the Anet guys had no choice but to accede to the demands of their Korean overlords. Another once great American company has been invaded.

Amra.6028:

Ryan.6951:

“8%, wvw availability”

Get your facts right and I might read the whole post next time. Both of those are flat out wrong.

Correct them, then.

fine, I shall. 8% is the lowest level of increase in stats vs exotics. They haven’t said the drop rate in wvwvw or even when they will allow us to get them in wvwvw.

Since they’ve now made legendaries better than exotics, and they indicated that legendaries will always be the best gear, can we get legendary versions of the ascendant items already in place – the backpack and the ring? I refuse to do another dungeon, so i am moving to do legendaries instead.

Thank you.

nice try, but those infusions also have stats, and the gear is 20% better than exotic.

Urxx.6840:

It’s been posted already, but now that the “under new management” thing has surfaced it sounds like a confirmation:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/crystin-cox/3/957/a77

It seems Nexon, which is known as a greedy company and bought a quote in NCSoft, pushed to have at least one of their people manage monetization in ANet.

Under new management

It looks less and less like a conspiracy theory that the good people at ANet, those who always said they were gamers first and foremost, and made the kind of games they wanted to play themselves, are trying to say to us: “sorry, it hurts us too, we have no choice anymore, we are under new management.”

Wow. I am sorry to hear that they put an intern in charge of monetization. I am all for earning profits, but there are right ways and wrong ways to do so.

Squirrelbane.2510:

Lolz.
A week ago we have posts about how there’s nothing to do anymore.
Now it’s posts about how no-one’s doing old content anymore.
Ppl :/

Fractals is amazing imo. So many very diverse and unique dungeons. And bosses actually get a lot harder, with more unique mecahnics the higher you go. I was worried it would be a hp increase dps race. Awesome they’ve actually raised the skill bar via new mechanics.

Skill in dungeons. Sorry doesn’t compute. Some of us never complained about nothing left to do. WHy couldnt they have given dungeon grinder their little dungeon thingies without giving significantly higher powered gear. some of us don’t want to do dungeons but will now be significantly disadvantaged in wvwvw.

At least when Mythic did this with Trials of Atlantis, they didn’t promise otherwise, and they didn’t know that they were hurting the long term prospects of their game. This is worse than Mythic’s failure because they promised they wouldn’t do this and they should know better.

glad you enjoyed it. i hate the dungeons, and I wont ever do them now, knowing that I only have a chance at the item I must get.

I am skipping fractal dungeons too.

Pinch.4273:

The drop rates are better when you’re not playing at the first tier (1-10)

swell so I am forced to grind to get better drop rates.? This patch just gets better and better.

the world didn’t really need another undifferentiated gear grind game. I honestly don’t see how this game is different from WoW now.

If I wanted to gamble, I’d go to reno to play black jack and count cards, lol.

gwawer.9805:

To the people who are saying “I didn’t buy this game to grind dungeons I just wanted to stroll about in the world and do my thing and enjoy dynamic events la la la”…

Are you actually doing that? Are you actually going back to zones and re-experiencing the events and the world? Or is this just an ideal that you wish you could do, but never actually could get yourself to do?

Maybe this is why Anet is being flexible now with their original philosophy, because they see that despite their own ideals of having players go out into the world and just “having fun” people simply don’t do that anymore.

i am levelling alts and doing wvwvw, yes. If the manifesto is wrong, why don’t they simply admit it and move on, not string us on like this?

Yeah,my entire list of family and friends are angry with me for convincing them to buy this game. It’s sad that they thought this was a different game.

depends how you play wvwvw. gear matters. if it doesn’t how about we make it all equal? would yo be ok with that then?

Mythic admitted that toa was a huge mistake. this really isn’t up for debate.

Phy.2913:

The said themselves they would add Asc gear to pvp. I don’t see this as much of a ladder yet though, barely a step stool.

why didn’t they do it at launch? that would have prevented a lot of the anger. fact is that wvwvw is ignored and marginalized.

Phy.2913:

Yes, because one person in your zerg is the reason you can’t take that keep. Without that +30 power the entire group will fail.

of course it wont matter when the haves have all the best gear and the have nots don’t. are you part of the 1%?

grind fans are misleading the impact of this gear on purpose. It’s significant, not a few points.

DootmasterX.3025:

You can only farm now if you want to run the fractals till your eyes bleed. Good luck LFG if you are just starting now though. Show any dissent and you get flamed into oblivion. I watched LA turn like a swarm of… well… Locusts on a few people in map chat for just asking for invites.

fine with me. I am staying in wvw anyway. i hated the dungeons.

I tried the dungeons last night. All I could say, over and over and over again was “I can’t believe I am forced to do this to be competitive!” Very sad.

WIth this latest patch, I don’t see much difference between WoW and GW, seriously.

glad you had fun. I despised it.

this is the aftermath of the locusts.

Phy.2913:

Where is it stated the WVW is gear based? Since when was it gear based? Who’s going to force you to get ascended items?

That’s right, no one.

lol. who said pve was gear based? show me? if you don’t think gear makes a difference in wvwvw, you probably never go to wvwvw.

Arlandino.7513:

I play for WvW… at this point I don’t feel like ANet even gives a flying crap about WvW…been logging in a lot less and so are my friends..ah well

I asked an anet rep who was in the borderlands when we could get the ascendant stuff through wvwvw. no answer. didn’t even acknowledge me but the thanked others who said the game has gone to crap. lol

kKagari.6804:

the hilarious thing is after all these ascended items are revealed, theres NOTHING special about them at all. Which puts GW2 on the category of gear grind games at the very lowest quality too. Why NOT play wow, the gear grind actually has QUALITY.

I wouldn’t call 20-30% higher stats nothing special.

Jski.6180:

Columba.9730:

Jski.6180:

Columba.9730:

mulch.2586:

Narkosys.5173:

Namu.5712:

Garenthal.1480:

It isn’t ‘easy’ to obtain at all. It involves a grind, be it a direct or indirect one. Some people will be lucky enough to be able to throw gold at anything they need, which isn’t ideal for those of us who don’t devote our time to grinding money.

Time to wake up buddy.

Getting to 80 was a grind.

Getting your exotics guess what…. oh thats right it was a grind.

I like how people seem to think that with ascended gear theres now a grind…. it was there all along. What do some of you smoke?

Getting to 80 was fun and a blast – guess what no grind.

Getting my exotics I bought with gold that I did playing the game and WvW.
Guess what No Grind and it was fun.

Getting Ascend gear – Guess what – Grind and no fun.
Try again Please……
PS you did it wrong
Other users experience may vary but no grind for me

Did you try the FotM? My initial runs were a lot of fun, even more than the dungeons we had at launch.

The cool thing in GW2 is if you don’t want to grind that gear, you don’t have to. Exotic gear works just as well as it ever did.

Exotic will put me at a big disadvantage in WvWvW. I tried the dungeons and hated them. Why can’t I get these items via WvWvW? Right now?

Well you can seemingly run t1 and get the one item that you need from these dungeons but if you cant do that much may be you do not need these items because its just so painful that your reward of the “self view” ideal that your week in wvw. Its on you to get your gear to what level you want its no one else job to tell you how to play or what to do.

Lol what? Hw many days of doing stuff I hate? Why is that fun?

Less then one day god your lazy.
Do you realty want the game just to hand you every thing? And like always you do not need the gear to play most of the game just the T6 and up on the new event that YOU HATE so i do not see your problem other then the need to come of the forms and tell ppl about your made up problems.

90 hours per piece isn’t one day. I am happy to wvwvw for items. Yes at 20-30% better, the gear is a must have, lol.

Fortuna.7259:

Cirroq.2531:

The premise that no gear treadmill has ever existed in this game is false when you consider legendary weapons. That being said there is no overwhelming advantage to getting a legendary other than bragging rights because the stats aren’t much better than exotics which are easy to obtain.

Legendary stats were never better. It was a key marketing point. That is a FUTURE change.

correct. in a sleight of hand, they made legendaries better for the first time, then they manufactured this sudden gap between legendaries and exotics that they just created. lol.

Ironangel.1548:

You have all got the moneys worth, you are not entitled, sorry but money>your concerns.

Thanks for telling me what $60 is worth to me. A bit presumptive. They in turn aren’t entitled to any more of my money or recommendations.

Greep.6394:

They actually had two entire blog posts, and several internet articles, way more than for any other update. It’s just not the reply we want.

they didn’t explain nearly enough.

1. How many more tiers should we expect – no answer.
2. When can this stuff be available in wvwvw?
3. Why did you walk away from your principles?
4. When will other legendaries be available.

How could they not anticipate this uproar and consequent list of questions?