Guild Wars 2

RAF! Whats up?

??

@killcannon:
I agree and disagree.

I disagree that GW2 makes its content irrelevant to its players. As much as I hate the hidden need to complete dailys, dailys push people into the world. World events, meta events, push people into the world. I think the world is more bustling now than in January.

I agree that GW2 uniqueness is becoming diluted with all the grind and “encouragement” by the devs to do certain pieces of content. In my opinion, the only things that are remotely unique about GW2 are the DEs while leveling and level scaling, even though other games are doing similar things too. Outside of that, its your generic MMO without raiding. Still a good game and I do enjoy it for an hour or two per night now(down from the 4-5 per night I was spending), but I won’t be fooled by devs or complete utter fanbois when they say this game is a snowflake.

I would beg to differ, Vayne. I look at the level 80s and they are doing the following:

1.Hanging out in LA either waiting for queues, being bored, waiting for events to pop up, or waiting for groups.

2.They are actually doing these “contents”…WvW, dungeon grinding, dailys, meta events, etc.

Go to a zone like Lorner’s Pass or Kessex hills. I doubt you’ll find a level 80 out in those zones that just want to be there just to be there..with no purpose. the level 80s in Queensdale are there for dailys because its quick to finish a lot of them there. They are also there waiting on shadow behemoth.

My point is, if people aren’t being herded from dungeon to dungeon, event to event, they sit around and do nothing. They are not out in the world just exploring and enjoying for the instrinsic value of it. If you see a level 80 in a mid level zone, he is most likely map completing.

Call it speculation, I call it a very solid guestimate.

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Im going to read the rest of your post, but I wanted to say that I agree with the OP. We are sheep being herded from event to event. To say that guild wars 2 is not a gear grinding game, is to say the sky isn’t blue. To say that the game is not evolving to be focused around gear, loot, and reward is to say that water is not wet. Lets be realistic and not naive, it is the direction of the game. Everything has a reward for your time and WE DEMAND IT. Why do anything that doesn’t reward, like reading the stories and dialogue.

I agree, I played Skyrim for the exploration, the story, the scenery. It is what I thought THIS mmo would be all about! I hardly cared about my gear. Sure, I kept up with it, but gear was the last kitten thing on my mind. It was all about being enthralled in the environment(story,audio,graphics,gameplay,purpose,landscape,etc). Shift to GW2, and we do things for a purpose. We grind dragons for chests for rares or precursors. We farm events for T6 mats.
I played the Mass Effect games, and loved every moment of it(still play multiplayer in ME3). The game was 90% driven by story and 10% gear. You cared what weapons you unlocked and but in the end, it was more about your skill and the choices you made. Again, a direction I thought/hoped GW2 would take.

Ive said this in MANY threads. GW2 is no unique snowflake. It is not about exploration, or the experience. Its just given you different ways, or at least the same methods masked different, to obtain BiS gear when compared to traditional cames such as WoW or Rift.

And I fully agree on a legendary story line for the legendaries. I would rather grind out some rediculously difficult and long story for months than farm 600 gold for my precursor. The fact is, it is easier to left precursor prices inflate than it is to create content/story for a legendary.

Actually in this game, you CHOOSE how you play. I don’t get herded to events. Maybe once a day for a few minutes, I’ll do an event. The rest of the time, I do what I want and I enjoy myself.

I’m not sure why that’s so hard for you. The gear has always been here. The farming has always been here. You choose to participate or you play the game you want.

I mean I’ve seen farmers complain left and right this game is not for them. Now I’m seeing an explorer complaining this game isn’t for him. You can’t both be right. lol

You and those like you are not most people, unfortunately. In game, take a look around at the level 80s. The majority are either sitting in Lion’s arch butt-scratching, playing the lobby game(waiting for queues and groups to form), or waiting for meta events to pop, OR they are at these meta events. Reality is, you see way, way, way, way more level 80 characters at these meta events and standing around in LA doing nothing but swinging their legendaries around than you see a level 80 in a mid level zone or low level zone just for the heck of it.

If I take my level 80s to other zones, its to complete dailys or map completion. We ARE being herded from purpose to purpose..whether it is a meta event or daily completion. It IS the way of the world and it DOES comprise the majority of max level characters.

Lucky for you, you are one of the rare few that are max level and go out into the game in any zone and have “fun”…enjoy the game. I envy you. But Id say 9/10 people are not like you.

Im going to read the rest of your post, but I wanted to say that I agree with the OP. We are sheep being herded from event to event. To say that guild wars 2 is not a gear grinding game, is to say the sky isn’t blue. To say that the game is not evolving to be focused around gear, loot, and reward is to say that water is not wet. Lets be realistic and not naive, it is the direction of the game. Everything has a reward for your time and WE DEMAND IT. Why do anything that doesn’t reward, like reading the stories and dialogue.

I agree, I played Skyrim for the exploration, the story, the scenery. It is what I thought THIS mmo would be all about! I hardly cared about my gear. Sure, I kept up with it, but gear was the last kitten thing on my mind. It was all about being enthralled in the environment(story,audio,graphics,gameplay,purpose,landscape,etc). Shift to GW2, and we do things for a purpose. We grind dragons for chests for rares or precursors. We farm events for T6 mats.
I played the Mass Effect games, and loved every moment of it(still play multiplayer in ME3). The game was 90% driven by story and 10% gear. You cared what weapons you unlocked and but in the end, it was more about your skill and the choices you made. Again, a direction I thought/hoped GW2 would take.

Ive said this in MANY threads. GW2 is no unique snowflake. It is not about exploration, or the experience. Its just given you different ways, or at least the same methods masked different, to obtain BiS gear when compared to traditional cames such as WoW or Rift.

And I fully agree on a legendary story line for the legendaries. I would rather grind out some rediculously difficult and long story for months than farm 600 gold for my precursor. The fact is, it is easier to left precursor prices inflate than it is to create content/story for a legendary.

Sadly, youll find this crop of people in every MMO. Elitists. Any MMO that has any sort of end game, in GW2 part of the endgame is fractals, people still want to zip through it as fast as humanly possible. Not knowing what to do will only slow them down.

Personally, I dont see much of this. If I am new to a dungeon, mostly I keep to myself and follow the group. Im normally in the back of the pack following them from point A to point B, watching what they do, moving when they move, standing where they stand. You might mess up here and there, but it’ll be less noticeable.

When I first started doing dungeons, I remembe rmy first few COF runs. “Everyone been here”…I was silent. Just followed them, and made it through.

But I am able to do this because I have common sense, I know how MMOs and boss fights in this game work, I know how to perform my role while watching others in my group for when they move so I can follow.

I know a LFG tool will not change people and their stupid ways, but I really hope we dont see 100 people “LFG COF ZERKER PARTY, PING GEAR, WARRIO ZERKERS ONLY”

I will lose my mind.

Curious what your frame rate is during large meta events such as Jormag, Tequatl, Shatterer, or even the southsun instigator events.

I know more goes into consideration that just a processor, but level with me here

My new parts should be here today, I’ll be building tonight and be in game tomorrow!

Hi,
Back in April of 2012 during beta, I posted this in the guildwars2guru forum. I found it and thought it would be nice to share(and I still feel the same as I did before about thy heartfelt requests). At least one of the lines concerning a betakey are no longer valid, but I do hope you enjoy this ballad!

Ode to ArenaNet:

This is for you, ArenaNet. Please do not disappoint.

As I eat my lunch, this green leafy salad
I am writing to you, this heartfelt ballad.

Much like the greens on my plate
Guild Wars and me: asphyxiate.

Not by gasping, or choking on lettuce
But by whispering sweet nothings, and the promises you fed us.

Cucumbers, lettuce, chicken and onion
I’ll run through Tyria, until feet filled with bunion.

Cheese, walnuts, and an ice cold drink
Guild Wars 2 is my new time sink.

Just like others, salads bland and bore
Please, do not allow me to snore.

I am done with the salad, as full as can be
Beta keys, please give one to me!

My drink now stands, a lonely reminder
Feature needed: Dungeon finder!

You now have my money, my hope and my time.
Guild Wars 2 best be sublime.

I’ll leave you now, with one last plea
Do not ever take Guild Wars from me!

Story is lacking, disjointed, unclear…all the info on the site should be in game and you should know about it.

Ill agree Mia Lunarfang…this "arc’ of living story was terrible and disjointed.
Ok! Flame and frost is done, we’ve got some refugees…that are…going to southsun for a vacation? And..something is kitten ing off the animals? Ok. Ill bite. Lets go.
Instigator after instigator…and then Some guy named Canach shows up. Who is he? And what are these contracts? Why should I be concerned? What impact did this have overall on the world?

I have NO idea whats going on, unless I read the website’s little story blogs. I try to read the dialogue in game when I can, but it doesnt tell enough.

I would love to see some, or all, of the main cities under constant siege for a month. That would make one kick-kitten living story. All cities under siege by risen, or Kharka or whatever, but simultaneously so that zergs dont port from city to city…the population must remain spread out to fight off multiple attacks in different cities at the same time.

I can’t believe people are whining about the boss instance and story dungeon. I for one, thoroughly liked the idea of a single player boss instance. Go in there myself, and get this guy down. 5-10 minutes and out! We need more like this for solo or two players where they can zone in, small instance map, kill a few bosses rather quickly, and get out..20-25 minutes tops. I LOVE this type of content. Rift does it well with Chronicles, and I hope GW2 takes on that type of stuff as well.

As far as the multiplayer, I havent done it. Read up on it, seems neat enough.

Concerning your marketing team: This is not the first, and wont be the last, time that your marketing team poorly chose its words. Who is governing them?

See, my feeble mind doesn’t work like exploiters. I wouldnt think to delete chars and redo the quest just to get 1g…It never popped into my head. Shame on me!

Hi. Assuming you are a mesmer if you are getting twilight and light armor?

The most evil looking armor set comes from Arah, probably. Check out that dungeon set, its pretty nasty looking IMO (in a good way).

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Solo.9027:

As to the OP, i’d like to be able to ascend my existing transmuted exotic armor for more stats but not for huge stacks of ecto or T6. Make it simple and have more than 1-2 ways of doing itI agree. Make it obtainable. Don’t “encourage” me to play parts of the game that I may not want to…or spend my hard earned ectos(saving for legendary stuff)..

yeah they really should do that.

make the upgrade cost reasonable please!

When they told us that we can have the ascended asccessory for X commendations or whatever, OR 40 laurels 50 ectos…my jaw dropped. I came here to rant and saw a dev post saying “The inclusion of ectos in the price is to encourage players to experience guild missions”. I dont want to be encouraged. I like the way I play. I dont want to be encouraged to play any other way. Stop trying to force me to play the way Arenanet wants me to play…especially after selling me this game where I thought I would be able to PLAY THE WAY I WANT TO.

So when I say, keep it cheap. I mean keep it cheap. Ascend my exotics to ascended stat equivalents via..some small amount. Do not charge me 50 ectos, 40 laurels, 30 commendations, 20 vadges, 10 obsidian shards.. Poof.

No. Think about this for a second..(I didnt read the thread so forgive me if I repeat)..but if ascended moved into actual armor slots, it turns into a cash grab.

Most people like the way they look, or most people have different armor sets for different styles of play, and/or PVP. If I got ascended armor, and I hated the way I looked, I will need to have enough fine transmute stones to change the appearance of all of my gear back to what it was prior to ascended armor. If I do not have enough stones, I have to buy off the gem store.

A cash grab. Im not sure if anyone noticed this, but again..arenanet is not fooling me here. Like my argument about slowly introducing ascended gear up until an expansion and poof! new level cap(possibly) and better gears..start the grind all over again. Sounds like any other MMO. Well, arenanet might fool some of you into thinking its different in GW2, but not me. Much like ascended armor…I see it for what it is. A cash grab. Or you look keep the ascended armor look.

Yah, I think we need to leave southsun alone. Once the story is done, get some good DEs going there with their own little story pertaining to the island..leave all the vet kharkas…Its such a change of pace compared to Orr where you have, or used to and kind of still do, have 50 mobs smacking you..vs one or two heavy hitters.

Vayne.8563:

Yep I’m colorblind and it’s a great improvement.

Hi..question and this is completely off topic:
Are you fully colorblind or partially? My wife and I suspect my daughter( 2 yrs old) is partially…she can tell us most all other colors without a problem, but green stumps her each time and from what I understand green is one of the three colors(red, green, brown) that would determine colorblindness.

I actually like it. I noticed this last night and wasnt sure if it was new or not..but its a smidge easier to see. I guess I missed this in the notes?

Not sure difficult this is to put in…people been asking for a long time now.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Thorquist.8126:

Down the road, we’ll also be adding a reward structure to total achievement points, and we’ll be looking at revamping portions of existing UI to help players understand all the different kinds of content they can play and the types of rewards available. Once we have that framework in place, we’ll be able to really expand on the content accessible through the achievements system and provide you with even more new and exciting ways to play the game.

This feature is still in development and will be added to the game, yes. No ETA since it hasn’t been signed off testing wise yet, but it’s absolutely still something you’ll be seeing this year. This is part of an over-all project to update reward systems across the game, you’ve seen some of the stuff already (daily/monthly overhaul), rewards for giant boss chests in the open world, etc. Some arrives next week release (rewards for WvW ranks) and the rest will arrive over the course of 2013.

As a reminder, what we’re working on high level strategy wise can be found here:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-on-guild-wars-2-in-the-months-ahead/

We’ll update this blog post in a few months with our status so far and the plans for later in 2013. (edited to clarify we’ll update the blog)

Colin, thank you.

Question: I, as well as others in the community, are concerned about the amount of different currencies in the game. Should we expect new forms of currency to be introduced any time soon(weeks, months, this year?). I personally think that there is already too many forms of currencies that just overwhelm new players and dilute the feeling of a rare drop in an instance/open world. If there are more currencies to be added, or even if not, are there plans to deposit these currencies like collectables? We already do with items like mystic coins, but dungeon currencies, fractal relics, pristine relics just to name a few, take up quite a bit of bag space.

Thanks for any input

I am curious: How do individuals such as dulfy get their information/strategies/maps/locations/etc ? Unless shes got the inside scoop with Anet, she/her guild does these on their own and gets community feedback/help. She is not Viki from iRobot that has all of this information.

Bumpity bump
Need some input before the orders are processed!

Hi,
So I am doing my first major overhaul in…5-8 years. I wanted to get some feedback.
Currently I have:

Motherboard: MSI (I think…I’ve switched it so many times I cannot remember, it is around 4 or 5 years old)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4ghz q6600 (overclocked to 3.0ghz)
GFX card: Nvidia GTX 460
Memory: 8 gigs DDR2
HDD: Western digital black 7200 rpm 600gb
OS: Windows 7 x64

I have ordered:
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000
GFX Card: Keeping the Nvidia GTX 460
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 × 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200)
HDD: Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
OS: Window 7 x64

I think I should be good for any event in GW2, regardless of the amount of ppl and spell effects(im talking about the meta events, the southsun instigator champions, WvW)…as well as other resource hogs like Rift(should I ever return to rift). However, I wanted to get some thoughts. Currently during meta events with a lot of people, my fps drops to 7 or 9 fps. The rest of the game is normally fine, nearly on Max settings.

What do you think my performance gain might be?

I mean, I know I am due for an upgrade. I just have a deck to build first(its one of those outdoor apparatuses…a grill goes on it..outside…) I have to convince wifey to let me drop 500-800 on some hot parts tho.

Thinking at least an i5 or i7 sandy…
my GFX card is OK, maybe amp it up.
new mobo and ram

Stormcrow.7513:

I use supersampling and I usually get 20-30+ on the large events. The game itself is terribly optimized and needs tons of work to the engine.
They are currently working on optimizations but the outcome of course remains to be seen.
Unless they add new threading to the game for quadcore+ CPUs or a better optimization of the actual client I dont really think that you can do too much OP except get a new system and overclock it.
It is unfortunate but the devs decided to use a modified GW1 engine which uses an antiquated API.
The end user is stuck with the results.

I thought they vamped up the optimization after betas. I do see all cores being utilized.

Sossa.1863:

cesmode.4257:

Hi,
So tons of people participate in the chest evens all over the map. Probably anywhere from 20-50 at any given time. Just curious what your FPS rate is on a boss like Jormag or Shadow Behemoth. Mine drops to an abysmal 5 FPS, maybe 10.

Have yet to see my fps drop below 30 frames.. During most boss events it will be at about 40 or so.
This is at 1920×1080 everything maxed. With native sample , with supersample it will drop 5-10 frames.

System Specs:
3570k @ 4.7 ghz
Sli gtx 670 @ 1300 mhz core clock
and 16 gig ram

You need an overclocked cpu (and a recent one) to be able 2 play this game at a somewhat decent framerate in all situations

Well, geez yah with SLI and 4.7ghz processor I doubt you’d have a lot of trouble.

Hi,
So tons of people participate in the chest evens all over the map. Probably anywhere from 20-50 at any given time. Just curious what your FPS rate is on a boss like Jormag or Shadow Behemoth. Mine drops to an abysmal 5 FPS, maybe 10. Its unplayable. I stand there and autoattack because I cannot do much else. Much is the same on the instigator champion bosses in Southsun.

I hate to bring it up, but WoW was successful for many reasons. One of them was being that the game was accessible to most people. Anyone could install the game on their crummy computers and they all could experience all of the content without much technical issue(granted they had to have the guild to get them there, etc etc whatever). My point is, any and all WoW content runs smoothly on any machine, now or then. That is a large reason why WoW was able to lure in a lot of people, because their engine didn’t make your cards die.

Sure, my rig has components, on average, probably 5 years or older. I can experience most of the content in the game, as well as any other game(including recently released Neverwinter which has some nice graphics too). However when there are 50 people on the screen with the amazing spell effects all whipping into the boss, its terrible. Its boring.

If/when Arenanet decides to make the world bosses and events more interesting and challenging, I will have to pass on it because I cannot experience difficult content at 5 FPS.

To arenanet: Is there anyway to improve this? These events are mind numbingly boring. Sitting there autocasting because I cannot do much else is not fun. I could give you my specs, but its not just my machine obviously. Many people lag out on these events.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Those were all in the game during development, and evolved with time.

Hey, not too often you see an “environment artist” around these forums. I think you and your team (the art team) are probably the most stellar team in arenanet. Fantastic, gorgeous world you’ve created, great armor skins and awesome legendary skins/effects.

LordByron.8369:

snipped for brevity

I have 5 80s: Thief, Necro, Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer.

I mainly play the Thief, Necro, Warrior. I do metas on the mesmer and guardian.

Thief is squishy and I go down a fair amount but I wouldnt say it is difficult to play a thief. I play a necro, full magic find, in dungeons and I do just fine. Infact, I stay upright more often than my fellow Warriors. The Necro community would turn over in their graves if they heard someone call THEM OP. And then theres the warrior, where I hundred blade everything, sure.

But my point is, the game is, by majority, easy on any class that I play. And I am not an elitist. The meta events are a joke, aside from a few that are just more interesting. Most paths in dungeons are pretty easy.

No, I disagree…big time. Sorry.

The game is not too difficult.

The flame and frost dungeon was a breath of fresh air and I hope to god that they give us more dungeons like that…(perma dungeons). It was not face roll, but it was not Arah difficult…it was not a 15 minute CoF run, but it was not a 1.5-2hr arah run.

Or, and I’ll give Arenanet this next idea for free:

Take COF path 1, and all of the other paths in the dungeons that take like 10-25 minutes to complete, scale them down for solo or two people, and make a new dungeon system for one or two persons. New content, for free, little dev required.

So we now have story/explorable/and what rift would call Chronicles. Sometimes I dont want to group with 5 people. Maybe I think my gear is sufficient enough to do this new content solo, a dungeon persay, without the help of a teammate. Maybe I’d challenge myself. Figure out the loot system, just please..no more currency.

On top of this, make all of the remaining paths more viable and desirable to run.

It is really just a shame that, again, Arenanet has fallen on a promise. In beta, people had the hardest time completing dungeons. Even early on. I remember the first two or three weeks of the game, we had such a difficult time with AC. I was like “Wow, I cannot imagine the other dungeons”.

If I recall, the explorables were supposed to be ridiculously hard content. Not instanced farm zones. If the content is supposed to be very hard, why can we blow through it in 10 minutes? Now, I don’t want a dungeon to be Arah difficult(to some arah is easy, to most it is a challenge which is why many do not run). But they need to bump up most of the dungeons.

Well, unless you want a skin, theres no reason to run any dungeon or any other path other than CoF 1, unless you are someone that just wants a change of scenery.

Whatever fix they have planned for COF, it needs to come quick. All other dungeons are kind of abandoned now.

Maybe bump up the chest rewards in dungeons, but the last chest in a dungeon is determined by the average completion time, or “difficulty” of the dungeon, etc? Maybe group up the dungeons into tiers, so that tier 1 gets X loot table for the final chest, tier 2, gets X + 1, tier 3 gets X + 2..etc.

If you think that farming X dungeons is more efficient than X+1 (since these might take a bit longer and be a bit more challenging), then you do X. Otherwise, run the X +1 (t2) dungeons.

Vayne.8563:

Astralporing.1957:

Because basing difficulty of the game on a very tiny (even if equally loud) minority that will finish any content in hours anyway, and then cry there’s no endgame is not really a good strategy in a game that was advertised as catering to casuals.

So much this. The harder you make content, the less people will actually end up doing it. Anet made AC harder than it was. People stopped running it.

Why would Anet make content people don’t play?

This is a truely sad truth, however. They made the fights in AC more interesting and less face roll, but the masses dont run it anymore. COF and fractals into the ground. Sad

In order to counter that, they need to revisit loot in dungeons.

Challenging dungeons: The only one that is reasonably challenging, that people run, is Arah path 1, or whatever path it is. People naturally find the easiest and quickest to run. They do not bother with the other paths, so if the devs want to save some time and money, stop making multiple paths for explorables? Id say 90% of players skip the harder paths in explorables…a shame, but thats the way of the human beast.

Challenging jumping puzzles: Im a pretty avid gamer, I play a variety, etc. I think a lot of the JPs provide enough of a challenge. Some are way harder than most, some are pretty face roll, and then the majority are right in the middle where it actually takes a little effort. Even though I will be so kitten ed if I fall off that ledge and die/have to start over, I love the Jps in the game. I just wish the chests rewarded something other than blues/greens.

There are SOME challenging events. The temple events in Orr are failed by groups often enough IMO. They have made shelt/pent harder by replacing everything with vets and champs which sucks for farmers like myself…I kind of preferred it the old way. But yeah, by and large there aren’t many difficult events that do not throw 50 vets and champs at you. I’ll agree here. This also goes along with challenging and unique boss fights that do not have multiple ways to one shot you, and are not tank and spank.

On the contrary, I think Gw2 is doing well and is bringing in enough money for an xpac. However, it is way too early for one. I would hope one is not released for at least another year…at least.

With that said, I do think that Arenanet has turned its back on its core from GW1, as well as people that bought into its manifesto(such as myself). With that said, I think that these people might be less inclined to spend in the cash shop, at least not as much as they would have…

Concerning AH inflation: I think that pertains to only specific items. Precursors, for example, are continuing to go up. I thought, as well as many, that with the addition of guild missions and the chance at precursors, the market would settle. Not the case, it went up.

Thank you guys. All makes sense.

Danikat.8537:

Try thinking of the fact that you had fun doing it as part of the reward.

I did that puzzle a few months ago. I don’t even remember what I got from the chest now. Could have been good, could have been terrible. What I do remember is the experience of finding and completing the puzzle, the time I spent staring at the waterfall in the cave thinking ’I’m sure this is the way up, if I can just figure out how to get started’, the view from the top when I finally did it, another player showing up just as I began to think I was going to lose to the earth elemental….

Honestly that should really be the main reason for playing a game anyway, to have fun. If you’re not having fun then there’s not really much point playing a game no matter how good the rewards are.

The sad, and somewhat frustrating part is, there are not enough of these types of areas or challenges. Solo-able content, but can be difficult via vets/champs and/or jumping puzzles… They need to do more of these.

Julie Yann.5379:

I guess GW2 was not designed to fit my end game play style. What I enjoy the most about this game is all the variety of build/gear combos I can experiment with. Unfortunately, to acquire runes and sigils and sometimes mats I have to rely on the TP where prices on some of those are through the roof. In a way my playstyle is more expensive than creating a stupid legendary since I have no way of recovering those runes without destroying the armor to try something different or no way to try new runes without losing the old ones. In order to support my gaming vices I need to make to most amount of cash in the least amount of time so I am all about rewards. I used to run shelt/pen/plinx, nerfed. I used to run fractals, nerfed. Snow trolls, nerfed, Grubs, nerfed, Lyssa (although I didn’t agree with stopping the event from being completed) nerfed. All I have left is CoF1 which is even more mind numbing than any of the above. I guess I shall just have to stop exploring all the intricacies that Anet provided us with character creation and stick to 1 build and follow the sheep from meta to meta and be content with the crumbs that drop.

Funny you should say that. The whole mentality is play the way you want to. If you are a person that loves to farm…well they seem like they are nerfing one farm spot after the other and are sheepherding you to the metas. Why? I dont know.

Regarding finding people to play with: Unfortunately, anyone that Ive found to play with has quit. The people that still play are online far too infrequently.

Yes, im a product of WoW being conditioned for years to expect reward, and good reward for my time and effort spent. I do enjoy jumping puzzles. Awsome views, and they are fun. Then you get to the chest, youre reminded of the fact that you are to be rewarded, and suddenly my mind shifts without me knowing to a stance that “Hey, I need to get something for my troubles”. I open the chest and its junk.

So I was just logged in for about 2 hours. I completed Hidden Garden, did a heart or two in maelstrom(thought I had it map completed). Then the Shaman popped up, did him with a small group. Yah, ,it was fun. And the two “funnest” parts were hidden garden and the shaman, but the chests from both had junk.

So while I definately like to play just to have fun, when I AM rewarded, its crap and it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth from what was otherwise a fun experience.

Hard to shake this mentality/view of the game(other any game)…where you constantly need to strive towards something and acquire it. Hard! Cant just play to have fun anymore.

If I am unable to do that here, I might leave eventually(again). If my mind is stuck in a item/stat geargrind type of game, I will go to games that do it better. Guild Wars 2 has a very watered down version of it. I am against gear grind and item progression in THIS game, I prefer cosmetic progression. I am not against a gear grind in general, but GW2 does item progression in a very poor way. Which is why I am TRYING to just enjoy the game.

While having fun, it would be nice to be rewarded semi appropriately.

Hi,
So like many, I have/am placing too much value on reward, grinding for mats, etc. For those of you that just play to play and have fun, what do YOU do? I just completed Hidden Garden, very fun. Wish there were more(Ive been in the dwarven one once). But other than map completion, what nooks and crannies have you discovered that are worth discovering? What intrinsic value are you finding in the game?

Hi,
So I just completed Hidden Garden for the first time. First, let me say that Arenanet should put more of these…mini dungeons in the game. I also have enjoyed the dwarven one.

However, slightly challenging at times it can be, nice puzzle jumping and scenery. I got all four cantles…and I should have known…the Sylvan chest rewarded greens. Intrinsically it was very fun and enjoyable, only to be halfway deflated by greens in that chest. I spent about 30-40 minutes, for greens.

Thanks for the fun, no thanks for the reward…

So you got lucky with an RNG precursor drop, or spent nearly 500g on your hunter precursor? Or did you benefit from the BS that happened early on in the game?

Because 488 gold(current price of the hunter) is no easy feat to save up. That requires…farming.

So, you’re trying to make a point that you got one of the easiest legendaries in the game? Then your point becomes that much weaker.

If you tried telling us that you acquired The Dreamer, Twilight, Incinerator, or Bolt…one of the legendaries where the buyout on the TP is 500-600+, then thats a different story and Id call BS on you not farming it(or being one of the few lucky ones).

So sure I can go and buy three or four aquatic precursors if I truely wanted. But not many people place high value on them. So when you come here and justify your point of “I dont grind” with the fact that you acquired the easiest legendary in the game, I consider your words very light and without weight. Yes, the gifts might have taken sometime but like you said you can play the game at your pace for those.

Lots of people farm certain events for T6 drops.

Then people farm the chest events for rares for ectos AND precursors.

Its the farm and the grind for the precursor and the ecto requirement that people are finding most tedious.
You bought yours for a mere 22 gold. Big whoop.

If I went to the TP now, bought my aquatic precursor for under 50g..I would have my legendary in a month or so.

100% agree with khai.

I just stopped playing Neverwinter, because of shotty customer support service, but honestly..that game is actually difficult and challenging. Im sitting here farming instigators in southsun, just swinging my sword over and over until hes dead. For greens. Not fun.

Nor am I getting rewarded really..

Contemplating breaking from GW2 AGAIN after only 1-2 weeks to head back to neverwinter. This crap is getting repetitive.

Ah the eternal optimist Vayne. So, tell us how you got that legendary without farming?

edit: Tell us how you got that legendary without farming in the last..5 months(after the surge of precursors early on and after handing out precursors during the karka event)

I agree with Vol. I used to love logging into my necro, and killing everything in sight during the pent/shelt/plinx events…and seeing tons of things drop. For the time invested, I felt like I got something out of it. Yes, you made it more challenging and in that right, it is fun. But if Im going to kill all veterans and champions now, because thats all these events really are, I better not be only getting some blues and the ocassional booty bag (that sounds funny). More rares, up the precursor chance, more T6 drops.

Make it worth our while. I havent had a need to go to Orr all month really, since Southsun’s been active either.