Guild Wars 2

A turret that targets man boobs?

Interesting….

Astralporing.1957:

Draknar.5748:

Ision.3207:

Fascinating thread, and the comments made by the majority of posters is fascinating as well. Just imagine the majority response to this topic a mere 12 months ago …

So my oh my, just look how the demographics of the Gw2 player base have changed since November of 2012!

Well done Anet; you pulled it off.

I think the majority of players didn’t care about Ascended gear. I think the overzealous forum warriors who played GW1 were the ones who cared about Ascended gear. The majority of GW2 players now likely have never played GW1 and are not, and have never been, against Ascended gear.

Possible. At the same time this majority is not (and never was) for Ascended gear. Which is rather obvious, seeing as they will never get it.
All besides the point, as Ision was talking about majority of posters.

True true. I will concede that he was referring to posters, I missed that part.

Personally, I’ve never been against Ascended. The game came out in August, they announced Ascended gear in November. I consider that early enough in release to say it isn’t Vertical progression but rather filling a void they didn’t anticipate. I’m also on the record saying that if they decide to add another tier of armor beyond Legendary, or between Ascended and Legendary that I would have a serious problem with it and would likely call it quits.

I think we can assume at some point they will add a Legendary set of armor to match weapons. Will match Ascended stats but would be stat swappable OOC. I’m all for that because that would be absolutely amazing and would actually be the last set of armor you would ever need. Ever.

I also agree. I’m pretty underwhelmed at this point of the lack of monster variety. Just off the top of my head let me see how many I can name:

Moa
Boar
Oakhearts
Troll
Bat
Deer
Marmox
Skale
Skelk
Drake
Barracuda
Shrimp
Shark
Jellyfish
Karka
Bad humans
Bad Asura
Bad Charr
Bad Norn
Bad Sylvari
Risen (which has a risen version of everything pretty much)
Griffon
Skritt
Hylek
Giant
Wurm
Dragon
Ghosts
Robot/Golems
Harpy
Destroyers
Dredge
Crabs
Wolves
Panthers/big cats
Gorillas
Minotaurs
Mechanized Creatures
Watchwork Creatures
Krait
Toxic krait/sylvari
Windriders

I’m tired of trying to picture each zone now, but this hits a good chunk of them. It actually seems like a long list but really it isn’t when you consider how large the world actually is.

I would love this event to be permanent, assuming they can figure out scaling properly.

It’s been like this typically on FA as well, although it seems that right as the event starts the rest of the people will join up and we get full numbers. 5min until event starts and there’s maybe 11 in each lane. Once the event starts is when everyone starts showing up I’ve seen. This only applies to primetime (7pm/9pm events).

Now, that said, we still seem to have a heck of a time actually succeeding through all 5 wardens. How people can consistently fail on Warden 2 is beyond me. And it hasn’t been for lack of numbers either, it’s been people legitimately failing.

IndigoSundown.5419:

What your post boils down to, though, is that you don’t perceive a grind because you’ve been playing the “required” content — apparently — for fun. What happens if you dislike that content? If you’re doing it “only” for the mats and otherwise hate it, the grind perception will kick in. Complaints about grind in any MMO are always going to have some component of, “I dislike the content I need to do to get the items.” Which was at least part of my point.

Yes, I’ve been playing since early release. I did the “required” content for fun and therefore I didn’t perceive it as a grind, this is true. I really think this is/was their entire idea. I’m guessing that they assumed the playerbase would be made up of people mostly like me who would look at Ascended gear as a longer term goal rather than everyone trying to get a full set done within a week of its release and then complain that it’s such a horrible grind to get the mats. It’s only a grind if you absolutely have to have it right now. If you can wait and accrue the materials over time playing content you enjoy here and there, then it isn’t a grind.

Most people like world bosses on face value, but most people also hate world bosses when they feel they have to grind it. I’ve never felt I had to grind it, so pretty much I do world bosses whenever I feel like it or if a guildie posts in guild chat that one is starting.

If I felt like I had to keep grinding them all day I would probably hate that content, but luckily, as many have pointed out on numerous occasions, Ascended gear is not a requirement and doesn’t impede enjoyment of the game in any way if you don’t have it, despite what the doomsayers may claim.

mtpelion.4562:

Lishtenbird.2814:

Ascended materials conversion has been suggested many-many times because different people prefer doing different content and would be happy to convert them even at a discriminating exchange rate. I for one am drowning in dragonite but have very little empyreal.

Trick for Empyreal:

Take your alts and park them at the Morgan’s Spiral Jumping Puzzle chest. Every day, log into each alt and open the chest.

You’ll be rolling in fragments with no effort.

In that same vein, I recommend the Southsun Cove JP at Pearl Islet. Super easy and all characters can teleport straight there from the Southsun portal in LA. No joke I think the fastest I’ve completed that JP was somewhere around 17-19secs, it’s that easy, and no monsters around.

Ision.3207:

Fascinating thread, and the comments made by the majority of posters is fascinating as well. Just imagine the majority response to this topic a mere 12 months ago …

So my oh my, just look how the demographics of the Gw2 player base have changed since November of 2012!

Well done Anet; you pulled it off.

I think the majority of players didn’t care about Ascended gear. I think the overzealous forum warriors who played GW1 were the ones who cared about Ascended gear. The majority of GW2 players now likely have never played GW1 and are not, and have never been, against Ascended gear.

So no, Anet didn’t pull off anything, the vocal outrage from the GW1 purists has subsided and the level-headed approving murmur of the actual playerbase has begun.

Devata.6589:

Not playing it lot. Hoping for better times. Don’t spend, never have spend and never will spend a dime on gems because I don’t want to support the destruction of the game.

That’s some great logic you got there, buddy.

“Pfft, I’m not going to give this company one red cent because that would contribute to the game’s destruction, I’ll just keep helping them pay their bills by playing their game for free, that way they are sure to succeed! I was a liberal arts major, why do you ask?”

IndigoSundown.5419:

TChalla.7146:

The following is a legitimate question, since I haven’t even started working towards ascended gear.

What materials are actually considered the “grind” materials?

Since you asked, the following are the materials needed to craft an Ascended Coat (light armor).

Different people are going to find gaining different parts of this “grindy” based on what has to be done to get the mats and whether they like that content or not. Alternatively, most of these items can be bought, meaning you have to gain gold. Gaining gold may be grindy or not, again based on what you do and whether you like it. My guess, though, is that most of those complaining about grind for Ascended are looking at a massive list of mats needed and considering the whole gathering process.

I don’t have ascended gear either, but I took a look at your list and I can honestly say that looks like very little grind to me. I literally have everything on that list already except all of that silk, which whatever that’s easy enough to get.

Is that seriously what people are complaining about!?! I mean really?! I just play the game normally and I have all of the dragonite, bloodstone, and fragments on that list already that I would need. 500 of each is NOT a lot for BiS.

All this time I really thought the grind whiners actually had some sort of basis for their whining, but if that list is accurate for requirements I am seriously disappoint.

Belzebu.3912:

Why not make your toons anything other than Order of Whispers … or you are among the players that never read 1 line of the Personal Story and click in the 1st option that appear?

Yea, seriously, it’s an Order of Whispers mission as far as I’m aware, I don’t think he realizes you can choose not to do it by picking Vigil or Priory.

tolunart.2095:

Draknar.5748:

Are you mad that people that purchased that mining pick now have access to a completely terrible, inefficient method to obtain sprockets and/or money? Really? Are you complaining just because you don’t have the option to grind for a worthless item inefficiently?

People who walk have a clear advantage over people with cars because when you walk everywhere, you can find a quarter on the sidewalk while someone who drives will pass by all that money without even noticing…

Wow so true, I’ve never thought of it that way! You are also significantly less likely to get into a car accident walking on the street than driving a car so clearly walking is the advantage! Safer AND chances to find money! Walking is P2W!

Belzebu.3912:

Draknar.5748:

Can you also buy your way to 500 crafting to make the items?

Yes, by exotic crafting.

That doesn’t even make sense to me. I can buy my way to 500 by crafting? That’s not buying my way to 500, that’s me crafting to 500. Every manufacturer in the world has to buy materials to create something, this is no different.

It’d be a pretty interesting world if metal fabricators had to mine their own ore, refine it, smelt it, and then make their parts. Or carpenters having to cut down their own trees, and process them into the proper planks.

It is perfectly acceptable and encouraged to purchase any and all materials you can from the TP in order to craft. Creates a healthy economy.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I would suggest doing more research on wildstar. PvP is only a small part of that game.

As to GW2, how is it not P2W? Please point out how I can get good looking new armors in the last year that doesn’t involve the gem store? Or perhaps tell me how I can obtain watchwork sprockets next week outside of the vastly superior gem store only mining pick? Or maybe tell me how I can reasonably participate in super adventure box hard mode without the gem store only coin? Or maybe the gem store only resource packs for ascended jewelcrafting… I could go on and on, but that isn’t the purpose of this thread. I’m certainly not alone, many people see GW2 as a P2W game now, but that is just the way the market is heading, people have more money than time.

Wow nothing you listed has anything to do with winning. You know how you can obtain Watchwork sprockets 1000x faster than anyone with a gem store pick? Buy them on the effing tradepost….jesus…

Compared to someone who gets possibly 1 sprocket from each node, they would have to pour hours into grinding nodes to even come close to what 5secs on the tradepost would get you and for arguably cheaper. Their time spent hunting nodes to get the occasional sprocket costs them more than you just buying them. If anything they are losing and you are winning if that’s their method for obtaining sprockets.

And don’t even try the “well they can sell the sprockets for profit which gives them an advantage over me therefore its P2W waaaa” ploy. Sprockets are one of the worst selling items in the game. In a day of node grinding they might net 10-20s in sprockets. One dungeon path run will net you many times that amount in a fraction of the time. The only ones that complain about GW2 being P2W now are the ones that can’t afford to buy any of these vanity items and are jealous/bitter so they try to find some way to make it seem wrong that they are even offered.

Are you mad that people that purchased that mining pick now have access to a completely terrible, inefficient method to obtain sprockets and/or money? Really? Are you complaining just because you don’t have the option to grind for a worthless item inefficiently?

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Draknar.5748:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Just buy everything. No grind required!

Nice! Please show me where to buy my Ascended armor I can’t find any on TP or gem store!!!

Clearly meant buy the mats for it so you can retain your sanity during the time gated little grind.

I know but how do I buy the Account Bound items?

EDIT: Unless you are saying everything except those items. Can you also buy your way to 500 crafting to make the items?

Exploration / Achievement point hunting is really all that is available for a solo PvEer late game. There are lots to do on the PvP/WvWvW side, and a decent number of things to do on the group play side (FoTM / dungeon paths), but for solo PvEer, I’m afraid it is pretty much like every other game in existence. At some point you either have to group up with someone or do PvP.

I can’t honestly think of an MMO that doesn’t require group play or PvP to stay busy at end-game, can anyone else?

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Just buy everything. No grind required!

Nice! Please show me where to buy my Ascended armor I can’t find any on TP or gem store!!!

kamedin.4698:

I am actually less upset by the repair cost and more upset that I cannot play the game how it was meant to be played (Personal Story and Exploration) just because of one enemy. No other world boss one shots an entire map (that i know of) and doesn’t make it unplayable.

If you are in your Personal Story you will not be killed. If you are exploring, explore up until the Marionette launches its attack, leave for 2min, then come back to the zone. Or, I dunno, understand this is a Living Story event that is temporary, and also understand that in this particular zone that you are exploring, there is a giant marionette menace that has the potential to wipe the zone every 2 hours if no one defeats it. If you have this information ahead of time (which you do), then there is absolutely no reason to whine about it.

You need to work around this, not the other way around.

I find the Dreamthistle GS to be way more awesome than any of the Legendary GSs. Especially on my Sylvari Guardian. Matches with his plant clothes and blade matches Aegis shield, and the blade fades to invisible when sheathed, which eliminates all clipping with my Sclerite back piece.

I’d include a photo if I wasn’t currently at work. It single-handedly halted my Legendary progress because now I don’t even want Twilight anymore except for stat switching. And all I need is Dusk to make it. Luckily I can transmute.

You know everyone said the same thing for Tequatl and I’ve killed him dozens of times in a guardian shout/healing build. I think once the fight becomes routine, the need for meta builds will become less important. For right now everyone is clamoring for it because they believe it is the only way to win. That will change eventually.

lol OP, what are you talking about? 100% of the time cleaning out your bag? Where did those items come from then?

Deposit collectibles + Sell junk to Vendors + use consumables (karma, essence of luck, loot bags, etc) = 85% reduction in your inventory in under 1min.

I think you’re playing the game wrong…

Yea, I’m not against it being a regular daily. I just throw it in rotation like gathering or activity participation. It would be nice if they added some of what OP is talking about, but I’ve honestly got no problem with there being 22 instances of this daily.

So, you’re in the zone during the event and you die when it fails? Why don’t you try helping with the event, or gee, I dunno, move to a different zone during the pre-set regularly occurring event that has been taking place for the last few weeks?

I’ve also died from this event, what chunk out of your bank are you referring to? Full repair bill is something like 11s, and that’s after multiple deaths. What are you suggesting your bill was on a single death? 1s?

Think we can all agree that we’d hit that.

If we were giant marionettes as well.

There was a guild about to finish their guild rush when the whole map died. They proceeded to get mad at our 11pm group that failed the marionette because it failed their rush, to which of course we wondered why the heck they didn’t come help with the Marionette because we were spamming that we needed more people the entire time.

It actually made the defeat better having them wipe. Their guild helping with Marionette would have undoubtedly seen us succeed, we wiped on Warden 5 but only because of leaks right at the very end. A problem their guild would have aided with greatly.

laokoko.7403:

dont’ think it’s that bad for guardian. You got staff, and 2 skills which increase speed. So I can actually keep swiftness up most of the time.

mesmer I find much slower though.

Agreed. On Guardian, if I properly space out my skills, I can keep speed buffs up 100% of the time, which makes me faster than any passive gives you. Would be nice being able to move quickly without having to slot two utility skills and a staff, however.

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard my Sylvari say this as well, or is it an Asura only thing to say? Either I’m crazy or I’ve legitimately been around an Asura every single time I’ve heard it.

Helcor.9527:

the ridiculous amount of cliff avoidance you have to keep in mind while playing this map.

I highly suggest using the normal amount of cliff avoidance you would typically use in real life. Being near cliffs is dangerous. In both RL and in GW2.

This started happening to me recently, happens every other day or so. I can confirm that rebooting your router solves the problem. Bit of a pain, but it seems to work

A large % of people doing the marionette are completely new to it and get no direction from anyone experienced. I mean honestly, I’ve done the encounter twice since it was released and each time I have no idea what I’m supposed to do and when I asked in /map, I would get answers like “go to 5!” or “lead champ 2 through mines”. That means absolutely nothing to someone who has never done the event.

I had to look up the encounter on dulfy.net (which I’m sure most people won’t actually do ahead of time, but rather after they fail it a few times and are still effing confused)

Not only that, someone else asked how the lane numbers worked and there were literally two answers, one person responded “they go counter clock-wise” another said “south to north”. Two different answers, no one chimed in to clarify. Just left it like that. I’m sure that person was like WTF.

I know those who have done it to death get frustrated for constantly failing, but if you assume everyone in your lane/OF knows the fight then you will continue to fail.

You need to explain exactly how the lanes work, explain what the whole point of the lanes are (i.e. not to let monsters leak to the very back). No one had ever explained that to anyone. You need to explain that there are two phases that go in lane order that splits your lane into 5 groups to kill a champion WARDEN in a certain amount of time. Don’t say “champ 1”or “champ 2”, there are champions constantly in the lanes, people who are new honestly assume you are referring to them and not the bosses.

It’s also useful to make sure everyone knows they will need a ranged weapon for some of the bosses. For example Warden III, someone had the foresight to yell to everyone to avoid the obvious AoE circles, to the point of calling everyone idiots if you got hit by them. Ok, sure that’s fair I suppose, most people avoid them automatically at this point anyway. At no point did anyone mention the basically 1shot kill AoE stomp the boss does. No one. And then when groups wipe, people complain wondering how the heck us idiots can’t avoid simple red circles on the ground. Gee, I dunno, had anyone mentioned that other skill he does, maybe it would have ended differently.

If you truly want to succeed regularly, you need to regularly educate the OF/map you’re on. After two fails and still not understanding the fight I decided to look it up.

Assume many of the people are at least on their first, second, or even third attempt and are still clueless because no one takes the time to explain. Rather they just yell and complain.

Shakkara.2641:

They ruined the tools I paid for previously, so I hate the new ones.

So then any time a new model of the car you drive comes out then you clearly must feel it ruins your current car. At least with your backwards logic anyway.

Example: my model year Audi did not have parking assist (back up beeps), literally the next year’s model has that standard. Should I now be able to take my car back to the dealership and demand a refund because now this new model ruined my old one? Big ole NOPE on that one. Car does what I bought it to do. It doesn’t matter if I tell them “well if I had known that the next year’s model would have parking assist I would have just waited to buy that one!! WAAAAAHH”

It’s the same exact situation here.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

3) Please tell me where Anet said that they would never release another infinite tool? A majority of the player based correctly assumed a long time ago that there would be new types in the future. The Molten pick matched up with the Living Story at the time. The Watchwork pick matches up with the Scarlet LS now. AS time goes on, more themed tools will come out.

Have to agree here. I simply assumed (and still do) that there would (will be) be another opportunity to get those items, likely cheaper, and if not cheaper, maybe a new version. I still assume this with almost everything on the gem store. There’s likely going to be something better that comes along because they are constantly working on this stuff

What OP wants is akin to buying a new cell phone for $200 and then after a little while a new version of that same phone comes out, but now with some marginally better arbitrary additional feature that yours doesn’t have for $250 (instead of $200), and you bring your old model phone back to the store to demand a refund and/or a free upgrade.

It sounds ridiculous because it is.

Always assume a company will increase it’s product line over the course of years. Most product categories have a low, mid, and high end version. There’s a smaller market for the high end, but you make more money off of them so you don’t need to sell as many. How do you get people to purchase the higher end, higher priced item? By adding an additional feature(s) the other, less expensive one doesn’t have.

Welcome to Capitalism, you guys must be new here…

Brisban Wildlands is on my short list of zones I can’t stand. Mostly because of the Skrittsburg cave. I hate caves. I think in general most people would rather be in one of the other 15-25 zones than Brisban.

Aeonblade.8709:

P2Bequal. That’s a new one for P2W I haven’t heard before. Whatever you would need to call it friend

Winning implies one person being better off than another…

or do you define winning differently than every other English speaking person?

If everyone ends up equal, then there are no winners.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It’s funny watching all the champions of this game twist and turn and lie over and over and change definitions to defend their position. It’s pretty spectacular the level of denial this thread contains. All the people who realized this game was P2W left already and are waiting for an actual sub game where they hope they won’t be nickle and dimed for every last look and feature.

Think you’re the one in denial, my friend. Guild wars is P2Bequal/casual, not P2W. You have two options: you can pay real money to get gold to buy some of the mats to make Ascended gear (because many of the mats are time gated and cannot be purchased) or you can not pay anything and run dungeons/bosses/champ train to make the money/farm the drops to make Ascended gear.

In the end, both will have the exact same gear. Person A has full Ascended gear, Person B has full Ascended gear. How the hell did one win over the other? This is a casual friendly game. You can either play 6hrs/day and get BiS, or play 1hr/day and also pay real money for gold and get BiS. THEY ARE EQUAL.

Anet is making it so that casuals can still be on par as hard-core players. Not better, not advantaged, equal. That is not pay to win. It is an equalizer.

Cyto.9401:

- max daily achievement points to 5 each day OR make a daily meta achievement for 5 points which requires 5 dailies which each give no points.

5?! I think 10-12 is a little more appropriate, considering most people can complete 5 in under 20min and I, being a casual, can get 8-10 without even thinking about it during normal play.

Either way this and many of your other points have nothing to do with the topic of horizontal progression. Your post was about changes you’d like to see in GW2. OP is asking about horizontal progression suggestions.

I agree with some of your points, though.

If they buffed loot tables there would be a public outcry from the people who don’t play regularly enough to complete LS events. They would cry about how unfair it is that people who do LS events get good loot while they, who don’t complete the LS events are unable to get the same good loots.

There’s already a thread about P2W…

Some could argue RNG is about as fair as it gets. Everyone has an equally random chance to get something (+ MF modifiers when applicable).

Personally I would much rather there be a system that has an alternative path besides RNG. RNG is good and all, but it would definitely be nice to be able to work towards something and know that there is a definite end. I don’t care if its grind-heavy, at least then you can actually make progress. With RNG it’s a complete crapshoot.

Would be cool if in the future you could upgrade your Ascended armor, not stat-wise, but with different particle effects, glows, shinies, and possibly even upgrade them so you can change stats a la Legendary weapons. Stat level would remain the same, but now you become a little more versatile. Would need to be a long term goal.

Evelynddra.9265:

Now I’m not saying buy gems and selling them wouldn’t make it easier/faster. But the fact remains it’s not REQUIRED, by any means. That’s fundamentally what separates P2W from not P2W. I do not need to spend any real life money to be on par with other players. I can achieve this goal in a relatively short period. I can achieve this goal by simply playing the game.

Yep. But good luck getting any of the P2W theorists to absorb that into their skulls. They think being able to do something faster actually does = winning. You can throw all the logic you want at them, it will just bounce off of them.

I like your example of people being able to farm/grind faster than others. If someone farms dungeons and bosses and can net 100g/week because they have the time, is it now all of a sudden not fair to more casual players who can’t do that? With their logic Anet would have to cap how much money you can accrue every day, because otherwise it wouldn’t be fair that someone with more time can accrue money (and by extension materials and/or legendaries) faster than people with less time.

Allowing those with less time the opportunity to purchase gems to convert to gold so they can remain as competitive as those with more time and willpower to farm is the fair (and profitable) thing to do. That’s how you make a casual friendly game. It isn’t P2W, it’s P2Bequaltohardcoreplayers.

Ikaros.7219:

i wouldn’t mind doing this jp.. as long as there were no timer… but looks like im gonna skip again this year

I wouldn’t skip it unless you are really bad at JPs. The damage ticking is slow enough that you should have plenty of time to finish it. If you haven’t mastered doing JPs while holding down your right mouse button, then yes, I would probably skip it. It’s a requirement pretty much since there are a lot of directional change jumps that can only be done efficiently while holding down the right click.

Wow, this discussion again.

This is exactly what it comes down to:

The people that cannot afford/don’t want to spend money on the gem store for anything default to saying it is P2W to justify why they don’t have nice things. They see others with nice things and assume they must have just bought gems, converted to gold, and then bought the nice things on TP, thus, in their mind, those people paid to win.

They disregard the fact that everyone can accomplish the exact same thing without buying gems.

The repair canisters and rez orbs argument? Pay2Win generally implies you are getting a real advantage over others, not just a convenience. One repair canister saves the purchaser ~7-11silver in repair costs, but how much did that repair canister cost them in gems? More than 7-11silver. So how is that an advantage? That they spend even more money than everyone else so that they don’t have to use the repair NPCs that are practically everywhere? That’s a convenience (that hurts them financially), not an advantage. Rez orbs are practically useless unless you happen to die where there are no enemies. You can’t use them in WvWvW or PvP. So what advantage do they now have with rez orbs? They save the 2-3s for the WP cost and 20secs of running? That’s not an advantage, that’s a convenience. No one is “winning” anything because they didn’t have to WP that one time.

Crafting boosters, XP boosters, etc: pay to win? What are they winning? They can level up slightly faster? It’s not like they magically level passed 80. There’s a cap. Anyone who has played this game knows you can level fastest doing events/dungeons – neither of which are effected by boosters. If someone wants to buy an XP booster that gives 50% extra for kills, let them, it’s not leveling them faster than someone who didn’t buy the booster and simply does DEs and runs dungeons, therefore it is not an advantage over people who don’t purchase the item.

Skins are skins. The argument that skins are end-game, and if you can buy skins therefore it is P2W is just….bad. How can you people honestly say that with a straight face. P2W implies advantages, things that you must have to remain competitive. Skins have nothing to do with that and are items that, of all the items in the gem store, are the most appropriate to be sold for money. That’s how business works. You want something exclusive, you need to pay money. How the hell else would they make money? They can’t monetize happy feelings and rainbows.

The only tangible argument against gem store is the fact you can convert to gold to buy materials (from other players) to put towards a crafted Ascended item, or outright buying a Legendary. Everything else is just nonsense.

My perspective: I have literally everything I need for a Legendary except the precursor. I gathered everything up myself with my hard earned gold. I cannot afford the precursor (yet) and have not been lucky enough in the toilet to get one. I could buy gems, convert to gold, and voila I would have my precursor, and thus my Legendary. Or I could not buy gems and just keep farming and saving (at around 300g saved at the moment) and still get the precursor anyway. The fact that I have both options at my disposal inherently refutes the P2W argument. But I’m sure others could argue that the fact I can even purchase gems to convert to gold to facilitate the whole process is P2W.

There’s really no way to find compromise here. Either you think its P2W or you don’t. I personally don’t.

It’s the haves versus the have nots. The have nots don’t like that the haves can get the same items they can but much faster through paying for gems. The haves feel that just because they can get it faster doesn’t mean they “win”, since the have nots can still get the same exact items, it will just take longer and be more work. It really speaks a lot about our little society here. I guess I’m a have.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

The great thing about the current Daily and Monthly system is that you can pick and choose which ones you want to complete. Yeah I didn’t like the daily where I had to use the toxic stones or crystals, so I skipped it.

So if we had some type of Gold for AP meta, players willing to drop money for it could do so, and people who didn’t like it can skip it.

There’s a whole thread from the top % of AP hunters that completely disagree with them being optional. To them, if it is offered as an option and gives AP it is therefore a requirement that they must complete and is no longer just optional.

I generally disagree with them, but that’s the playstyle they want to pursue.

Afya.5842:

This is just stupid. I’m not here to argue whether Wintersday is Christmas. It IS NOT, period. So don’t put argument like “Christmas time is a time of giving.” Or “Get in the effing Xmas spirit.”

And donation isn’t necessarily in pure money form. You can donate food, clothes, etc. which would be better in game because you earn those stuffs from completing wintersday activities. And that encourages people to participate more in the event. The gold option however, drives people off the event because wintersday activities don’t reward gold.
(ofc you will come up with the argument that earning gold and buying sweaters would be the fastest method, or to sell the stuffs from wintersday to buy gold , blahblahblah.)

The gold option is just that, an option. It isn’t driving anyone away from anything. Every person in my guild did it and did it without crying about it. For those that think its simply too much to ask for can supplement the achievements from those with the daily categories and still get the meta. You’re honestly complaining that they dare even have the option to donate money for an achievement. That’s ludicrous.

Wintersday IS BASED ON THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY. You would have to be completely delusional not to see that. Everything about it references the typical commercial Christmas holiday (candy canes/peppermint, snowflakes, toys, gifts, the color schemes, decorations, snowmen in top hats, heck even the kitten ed quaggan are wearing SANTA HATS!) You need to give up on the Wintersday isn’t Christmas argument. You sound ridiculous. It is the GW equivalent of Christmas (and no I don’t mean the religious holiday Christmas, I mean the commercialized Santa Claus Christmas). Are you trying to say that everything I listed that is shared by both Wintersday and Christmas is merely a coincidence? Explain the lore on the snowmen with top hats to me in Tyria, or the quaggan in bright red hats with white trim and a white ball at the end. Please, I would love to read your explanation as to how that ties in with Dwayna and Grenth….

Lalocat.6793:

Yeah, but when I just play the game normally, I very rarely have any reason to go to Kessex Hills.

Hence the LS in Kessex…..you know, to drive people there that normally wouldn’t go there. The LS is designed to try and make the earlier zones a little bit more relevant.

From what I understand the tri-color chest will be permanent? (could be wrong) Which would be an attempt to bring people into the zone that normally would never venture back and also tie it into the Living Story.

There actually is logic to what they are attempting to do. I realize it doesn’t always hit the mark, but they are trying and I commend them for it. If each zone affected by the LS had some lasting gimmick that could draw people back to it on a daily or weekly basis, then I’m sure they (and I) would consider it a successful endeavor. I personally am not a fan of a chest that requires 3 different pieces, but I’m sure they can collect data on how many people actually open those chests (once the LS achievement reward for it is removed) and can learn from it.

I think they can expand on the LS (and even remove the temporary aspect of it) by making the story repeat NPCs permanent. I mean, once you finish the story part of this LS you can redo it by talking to the person and kind of “reminisce” on what had happened, which basically means you’re doing it again, but in “reality” you’re just telling the story of you doing it again to someone. They would make SO MANY PEOPLE happy if every LS story dungeon/event was repeatable in this manner. Go to the zone and area it took place, talk to person and either they “tell you the story of what happened” or if you’ve completed it in the past “you tell them the story of what happened” and actually get to do it all over again. Would only work on instanced content.

For anyone who cares: drop rates on these recipes are pretty high. After multiple people in my guild linked their drops I decided to actually seek out the recipes. Bought 250 gifts, got Dwayna. Bought 250 more, got Grenth. In hindsight, after looking at the prices on the TP, it would have been cheaper (slightly) to just buy the recipes directly. <—- highly suggest. But I also got a ton of Ascended mats and Essences of Luck, so you have to factor that in.

Afya.5842:

This is Wintersday not Christmas! It’s the celebration of moving from the Grenth season to Dwayna season! We are NOT celebrating the birth of Jesus!
Dwayna sends presents and Grenth destroy them. It’s never Dwayna sends money nor Grenth stealing them……
The dolyak to divinity reach carries presents only. And inside it’s only some old ugly clothing, not gold bar. So tell me where the heck did the gold go?

I said it many times, if it’s like a thousand sweaters, which probably worth more than 3g, I’m absolutely fine with it.

….are you honestly telling me that Wintersday, with the ornaments, beautifully wrapped presents, a big ole toy factory, etc. is not based on the real life holiday Christmas? Is that what you really want to be on the record as saying? No one is saying Wintersday is about the birth of Jesus, but its fairly obvious that Wintersday, and literally every other “winter time holiday” in other MMOs is based on the commercialized Christmas holiday. And charity is a part of that holiday. Saying anything but is simply just being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn.

If you want to scrooge it up and not donate to the imaginary charity, don’t. You just won’t be rewarded for it. You can still get the meta while being a miserly scrooge.

ProtoGunner.4953:

Other games add dungeons/raids with better loot,

Which is exactly why a lot of people quit those games to come here. I personally just got over the whole treadmill. Spending months to get an armor set only to have it become obsolete weeks later when the new raid came out. After 4.5 years of constantly replacing my armor and weapons, I just had to stop.