Suggestions from a casual player (harrier stats)

hi Anet.

i am a casual gw2 player. i like to do open world events now and then but not all days long.also i like to do wvw sometimes. and when i do i am always a healer.long ago i made a tempest ele healer (magi) and a ventari revenant (maklain) geared healer.so now i was planning to make a druid healer and gear it acsended. oke nice i made the armor,now i only have to swap stats. need spirit shards.

BUT then i got a big problem. the accesoires. with long searching i found how to obtain ascended harrier's stats accesoires.and i saw i have to get 8500 trading contracts.. oke i search how to get them. AND i see i have to do champion or bounty runs and iget 10 trade contracts every champion. so 8500/10..... yes i have to kill 850 chamions to get all the accesoires.it very very disappointing for me. also because, Raiders... need magnetite shards and they only have to get 250 of them for each accesoire.its unfair to me. Raiders do what they like and the raid was released very long ago. so most ppl have already everything they needed from raidsand have loads of magnetite shards spare. so with the release of this expansion raiders can gear a druid in no time.while casual players like me have to work months for the same items.

second, the new zones are boring. i liked to play heart of thorns maps. events but... 850 bounty champions.. cmon what you think about it? enjoyable? no.think about the time you need for it. you get back from work and think omg now i have to work even harder to get a druid geared. if i gear a char i want it ascended, ifnot i dont want to play the char.also winterberry farm was good able to do. 1 or 2 days and we can buy an accesoire.its also a grind but one that doesnt hurt.

so suggestion.. think about casual players and add harrier's and other new stats to old ls3 ascended accesoires (maybe everyone or only ppl who have PoF)and make EVERYONE happy.raiders have loads of magnetite shards in wallet and can be instant used for new accesoires.casual players have loads of winterberrys in wallet and cant be spend on new accesoires and we have to work months for the same.unfair in my eyes. raiders can buy the NEW accesoires with Heart Of Thorns currencys while casual players have to grind for a new currency.

raiders have their nice envoirement and do what they like to do and get the currency thats needed for the accesoires.and casual players can grind a boring map every day long for months to get the same items. and they are champions not just a mob that gets nuked within 5 seconds.and we have to move whole maps again and again.

i hope you understand me and can imagine the pain..

i know i have to work for my gear and thats not a problem (aslong we can enjoy the game and dont see it as second job)i dont want to whine but its rediculous compared to raiders.but months long grind for accesoires that other ppl can easy buy instantly when the items release because they have the currency in overloads.

and raiders have legendary armor.wvwers have legendary armor.can we have something too?...casual players can get ascended gear and accesoires with the same stats. but please keep it nice for us also. there is a reason that we get called casual players.that is nice about gw2 compared to other mmo's noobs like me can also have nice gear. and good weapons. without having to raid.

raiding is no option for me. i geared a mirage mesmer. i cant get better then 16,5 k dps at dummy. when i first time saw nevermore i thought omg i want it.but i didnt know how to get it and if i was able to ever get it. oke long story short. i finally made the weapon but now the problem.its called META builds. i want to play a nice class but with my dream weapon. but the dps is so very bad. ppl dont want me in raids.i like to heal. my magi ele isnt welcome. my revenant is maklain geared (for wvw) i am sure he isnt welcome also in raids.so maybe with a druid, but i need the gear first before ppl to inv me for raiding... yes you understand me.

i hope meta gets removed and make ppl able to play the class they like with whatever weapon they like to play with. meta build make a lot classes useless and make theopportunities very small. and builds get boring. played necro before.

what you you think? pls add a comment whats your opinion. or am i wrong?

My post was off topic.

So, to encapsulate this long-winded post, you're asking for meta builds to be removed?

Can't be done. The whole concept of meta builds is based on people finding the most optimal builds for specific situations (specific raid bosses, WvW, GvG, roaming, PvP, etc.). So while ANet can tweak, nerf, and buff different builds, there will always be meta builds because there will always be an optimal set of builds.

What you can hope for is a more balanced landscape where there are _more_meta-worthy builds. That is not to say, for example, we will ever expect Soldiers, Clerics, etc. to be ever used except in extremely niche cases.

Why does it have to be an ascended accessory and why does it have to be harrier stats? Also, You can just play events around any pof map and gain the trade contracts, so why not do it that way? Also you said you dabbled in wvw in your post, so can I assume you've accumulated some skirmish tickets? If you have, why not use those for accessories? Or you can even do some fractals/pvp and get it from there if you want.

You can get trade contracts from doing just about anything in PoF from what I have noticed, general events and bounties both alike. I think though I could be mistaken, you can also get them from doing Hearts. (Please someone point out if I am wrong or not).

You can buy ascended trinkets with Laurels as well (do they have harrier inscrips? I haven't taken a look in a while).

@Sephylon.4938 said:Why does it have to be an ascended accessory and why does it have to be harrier stats? Also, You just play events around any pof map and gain the trade contracts, so why not do it that way? Also you said you dabbled in wvw in your post, so can I assume you've accumulated some skirmish tickets? If you have, why not use those for accessories? Or you can even do some fractals/pvp and get it from there if you want.

^^ This.

WvW is a really good way to get items that one might find difficult to get through general PVE etc.

@RebelliousChyld.6427 said:You can get trade contracts from doing just about anything in PoF from what I have noticed, general events and bounties both alike. I think though I could be mistaken, you can also get them from doing Hearts. (Please someone point out if I am wrong or not).

You can buy ascended trinkets with Laurels as well (do they have harrier inscrips? I haven't taken a look in a while).

@Sephylon.4938 said:Why does it have to be an ascended accessory and why does it have to be harrier stats? Also, You just play events around any pof map and gain the trade contracts, so why not do it that way? Also you said you dabbled in wvw in your post, so can I assume you've accumulated some skirmish tickets? If you have, why not use those for accessories? Or you can even do some fractals/pvp and get it from there if you want.

oke i will try wvw. but i no more get to pof zones.

@"Genesis.5169" said:You do know that all legendaries require people to do OW content much of which is casual content.And if your asking to get things of equal value to legendaries for alot less work.

You need to sit back and go and think why that would be a bad thing and how much it would anger the people who actually put in the work, it would even spit in the face of the term "Legendary". Legendaries aren't for everyone nor should they be.

you dont understand my post. the thing i want is, the ascended accesoires must be cheaper (less trading contracts) raiders can buy the harrier stats with a currency they got from a raid from previous expansion, while ppl like me have to grind for a new currency. 8500 trading contracts, and get 10 from a bounty champion.and i dont do hearts every day its a waste of time. i want it faster.

winterberry farm is a fair grind. even ember bay is a long grind and bloodstone fen. and raiders can buy every accesoire with stat of choice. with currency they got from an old raid...

@"titje.2745" said:

raiding is no option for me. i geared a mirage mesmer. i cant get better then 16,5 k dps at dummy. when i first time saw nevermore i thought omg i want it.but i didnt know how to get it and if i was able to ever get it. oke long story short. i finally made the weapon but now the problem.its called META builds. i want to play a nice class but with my dream weapon. but the dps is so very bad. ppl dont want me in raids.i like to heal. my magi ele isnt welcome. my revenant is maklain geared (for wvw) i am sure he isnt welcome also in raids.so maybe with a druid, but i need the gear first before ppl to inv me for raiding... yes you understand me.

Harrier armor and weapons with the right food is just fine for running raids. Many groups use 2 druids anyway so might stacking should not be a problem.

You would be at 73% boonduration (or 80% with concentration food) with magi trinkets. And if you can afford concentration sigils you would be at 100%. And while raidin you can work towards getting full harrier with magnetite shards.

And if you really want that boonduration you can use exotic magi pieces with plat doubloons to get to 100% without using concentration sigil. (At a slight cost to healingpower)

Here are the 101 ways to acquire Trade Contracts: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trade_Contract#Acquisition

If you are limiting yourself to Bounties-only, that would be a personal decision.

Good luck.

Something that I just recalled, the merchants only sell 1 unique accessory/earring so you'll need to find another source to get your 2nd accessory/earring anyway. Additionally, you can get a free harrier amulet by doing story achievements so that should cut the amount of contracts you need down to 6k.

You can get trade contracts from doing just about anything in PoF from what I have noticed, general events and bounties both alike. I think though I could be mistaken,you can also get them from doing Hearts. (Please someone point out if I am wrong or not).

You can buy ascended trinkets with Laurels as well (do they have harrier inscrips? I haven't taken a look in a while).

I don't believe you can get trade contracts for finishing heart quests as those only give karma from what I've experienced though the mobs you're probably killing can drop consumable trade contracts. Unfortunately, trinkets with the harrier stat, along with the other pof stats, can't be bought off laurel vendors.

I would say no. Understandably, players of all types want the best gear available. But no matter if you are "hardcore", "casual", or somewhere in between should any player need/want gear of a particular level, you should absolutely have to put in the time and effort for it.

i checked wvw vendor but i dont see it. i only do wvw sometimes, i am only rank 65 i dont do much in this game. my only goal was nevermore but i got it. i wanted a new goal and started gearing a druid. so wvw is also no option. i dont do fractals no raids no pvp.

but whatever i write or typ here ppl never understand me. how good i explain it. everyone here think its normal to grind months long for some accesoires wich raiders can buy instantly from heart of thorns currencys.

if i have to spend 500 trade contracts for 1 accesoire is acceptable but 3k.... i think most ppl here have 24/7 time to play. > @Sephylon.4938 said:

Something that I just recalled, the merchants only sell 1 unique accessory/earring so you'll need to find another source to get your 2nd accessory/earring anyway. Additionally, you can get a free harrier amulet by doing story achievements so that should cut the amount of contracts you need down to 6k.

You can get trade contracts from doing just about anything in PoF from what I have noticed, general events and bounties both alike. I think though I could be mistaken,you can also get them from doing Hearts. (Please someone point out if I am wrong or not).

You can buy ascended trinkets with Laurels as well (do they have harrier inscrips? I haven't taken a look in a while).

i hate storys.

@Blue Hare.8612 said:

@"titje.2745" said:

raiding is no option for me. i geared a mirage mesmer. i cant get better then 16,5 k dps at dummy. when i first time saw nevermore i thought omg i want it.but i didnt know how to get it and if i was able to ever get it. oke long story short. i finally made the weapon but now the problem.its called META builds. i want to play a nice class but with my dream weapon. but the dps is so very bad. ppl dont want me in raids.i like to heal. my magi ele isnt welcome. my revenant is maklain geared (for wvw) i am sure he isnt welcome also in raids.so maybe with a druid, but i need the gear first before ppl to inv me for raiding... yes you understand me.

raiding is only a example. but i just want a harrier druid geared. but thnx for the advice.the problem is the currency. i dont go farm months for an item that other can buy free.if its a legendary sure its special for long work no problem.

i think i explained it good enough and more then 1 time. but ppl dont understand me.

@"titje.2745" said:hi Anet.Hey! Wait... I'm not Arenanet...

i am a casual gw2 player. i like to do open world events now and then but not all days long.I'm pretty much the same, so I can relate. Almost.

also i like to do wvw sometimes. and when i do i am always a healer.long ago i made a tempest ele healer (magi) and a ventari revenant (maklain) geared healer.so now i was planning to make a druid healer and gear it acsended. oke nice i made the armor,now i only have to swap stats. need spirit shards.All sounds good so far for a healer.

BUT then i got a big problem. the accesoires. with long searching i found how to obtain ascended harrier's stats accesoires.and i saw i have to get 8500 trading contracts.. oke i search how to get them. AND i see i have to do champion or bounty runs and iget 10 trade contracts every champion. so 8500/10..... yes i have to kill 850 chamions to get all the accesoires.You can get contracts from everything... you know that right? I have almost 9000 trade contracts from doing random things around PoF in general.Bounties are not the only "open world events" there are.

it very very disappointing for me. also because, Raiders... need magnetite shards and they only have to get 250 of them for each accesoire.its unfair to me. Raiders do what they like and the raid was released very long ago. so most ppl have already everything they needed from raidsand have loads of magnetite shards spare. so with the release of this expansion raiders can gear a druid in no time.while casual players like me have to work months for the same items.Raid stuff is much harder though. Just like how I could've gotten the new elite skill the moment PoF came out because I went and got every hero point before PoF came out. HoT hero points are not easy (yeah yeah I used HP trains, shut it.).You either have the easy way of just getting it casually through trade contracts or having to do raids. At least I would be happy I have an option to get that crap outside of raids.

second, the new zones are boring. i liked to play heart of thorns maps. events but... 850 bounty champions.. cmon what you think about it? enjoyable? no.This is your opinion. They can't make everyone happy. I find only Istan boring as hell while enjoying (majority) of the new PoF maps personally.

think about the time you need for it. you get back from work and think omg now i have to work even harder to get a druid geared. if i gear a char i want it ascended, ifnot i dont want to play the char.also winterberry farm was good able to do. 1 or 2 days and we can buy an accesoire.its also a grind but one that doesnt hurt.But... you can't get all accessories with winterberries... you would need other accessories from other maps too which those are not as easy as winterberries.I don't think I've ever had over 100 jade shards ever.

so suggestion.. think about casual players and add harrier's and other new stats to old ls3 ascended accesoires (maybe everyone or only ppl who have PoF)and make EVERYONE happy.That's... not how these things work. I wish it did as I want Grieving stats, but I can't even turn my ascended stuff to Grieving as I want with a stat change it seems.(Oh, if we can now, please correct me as I would be happy, but I don't think there is an exotic grieving insignia we can use for stat change when I last checked not too long ago).

raiders have loads of magnetite shards in wallet and can be instant used for new accesoires.casual players have loads of winterberrys in wallet and cant be spend on new accesoires and we have to work months for the same.unfair in my eyes. raiders can buy the NEW accesoires with Heart Of Thorns currencys while casual players have to grind for a new currency.It could be Petrified, Orchic, Jade, Pearls, and so on too and those are not easy to farm. Why do you think you can get every single accessory with just winterberries?

raiders have their nice envoirement and do what they like to do and get the currency thats needed for the accesoires.and casual players can grind a boring map every day long for months to get the same items. and they are champions not just a mob that gets nuked within 5 seconds.and we have to move whole maps again and again.I'm... not sure if you want to call it a "nice" environment. Then again, Raiders might be like the Hylek as they're immune to their own toxic... or toxic in general.

i hope you understand me and can imagine the pain..I'm a casual player and I don't.

i know i have to work for my gear and thats not a problem (aslong we can enjoy the game and dont see it as second job)i dont want to whine but its rediculous compared to raiders.but months long grind for accesoires that other ppl can easy buy instantly when the items release because they have the currency in overloads.The thing you're not understanding is Raid crap is 100x harder than a bounty if you're honestly thinking of only farming bounties. The only bounty I can think of being hard (because I've never been in a group that can kill one) is that Jackalope.

and raiders have legendary armor.wvwers have legendary armor.can we have something too?...I say no because I think they would've given us long long ago. Seems like that's not an option and chances are will never become one.

casual players can get ascended gear and accesoires with the same stats. but please keep it nice for us also. there is a reason that we get called casual players.that is nice about gw2 compared to other mmo's noobs like me can also have nice gear. and good weapons. without having to raid.So... what's the complaint then? Just how long of a grind it would take? This content is new though, so I'm sure after a while just like living world grind, you would have millions of contracts one day and you wouldn't even be thinking like you did with this topic.

raiding is no option for me. i geared a mirage mesmer. i cant get better then 16,5 k dps at dummy. when i first time saw nevermore i thought omg i want it.but i didnt know how to get it and if i was able to ever get it. oke long story short. i finally made the weapon but now the problem.I have no clue what you're saying here. I know raiding is no option for me as my mains is a Pistol Thief and a Necro (well not core no more, I'm Scourge but still Necro).So the weapon you couldn't get, you now have? So what's the complaint here? I'm not English so that comment was mega super ultra confusing to me.

its called META builds. i want to play a nice class but with my dream weapon. but the dps is so very bad. ppl dont want me in raids.i like to heal. my magi ele isnt welcome. my revenant is maklain geared (for wvw) i am sure he isnt welcome also in raids.so maybe with a druid, but i need the gear first before ppl to inv me for raiding... yes you understand me.Then work on getting the druid gear so you can raid? As you said 980 bounties if you ONLY do bounties.... So... do those until you can get the gear.Also, good luck being casual in raids.

i hope meta gets removed and make ppl able to play the class they like with whatever weapon they like to play with. meta build make a lot classes useless and make theopportunities very small. and builds get boring. played necro before.The meta exist because the game have horrible balancing. It's not the meta builds. It's how the classes are set up. Until each class (At least in PvE because I don't know why they're trying to build PvE around damn PvP content) can do really good damage/support all around to be able to raid as any set up/class/build, those meta builds will never disappear.

what you you think? pls add a comment whats your opinion. or am i wrong?I think I've gotten a headache from trying to understand the issue.

A correction to your statement: raiders for months to get those gears. Magnetite shard is capped at 150 a week and accessories cost upwards of 250 shards each to get, meaning they needed to cap shards for 2 weeks to get a single accessory. To get all 5 accessories, they needed 1250 shards which needs 8 weeks worth of capping mag shards. The only difference between this and raiding is that they finished grinding months ago, where as this is newer and grinding for these have barely begun. How you want to do this is now completely up to you.

That's... not how these things work. I wish it did as I want Grieving stats, but I can't even turn my ascended stuff to Grieving as I want with a stat change it seems.(Oh, if we can now, please correct me as I would be happy, but I don't think there is an exotic grieving insignia we can use for stat change when I last checked not too >long ago).https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Intact_MosaicThey're around 40s off the tp and drop every so often on legendary bounties. They function as both an inscription and an insignia.

@"Sephylon.4938" said:

That's... not how these things work. I wish it did as I want Grieving stats, but I can't even turn my ascended stuff to Grieving as I want with a stat change it seems.(Oh, if we can now, please correct me as I would be happy, but I don't think there is an exotic grieving insignia we can use for stat change when I last checked not too >long ago).

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Intact_Mosaic

They're like 40s off the tp and drop every so often on legendary bounties. They function as both an inscription and an insignia.

Wait so...1 Ascended, 1 Intact Mosaic, 5 Ecto, and 1 Anthology of Heroes will turn my useless ascended axe I have in my bank into a Grieving Axe?The wiki doesn't state this.

it does, I did it with my weapons

@"Sephylon.4938" said:it does, I did it with my weapons

Here goes nothing... now to see if I can make this weapon not be junk...

YES! YES! THANK YOU!

it works for armor too ;)

Harrier needs to be redone to 4 stat imo to make it useable. Lack of vitality on some these amulets kills it and if its 3 stat it can be converted and be better than its previous state, maybe make it into metabuilds, no point in keeping something useless around.

1050 Power560 Healing Power - Put healing power here to stay in line with old stats although itd be good on 1050 slot too.560 Vitality1050 Concentration

A longer text with several points. I'll try to give an answer to each point:

Harrier AccesoiresThere is more than one way to reach that goal. You already listed raiding and trade contracts. But you can also get accesoires with selectable stats (with Harrier as an option) from Fractals, sPvP and WvWvW. If you split up your wishlist to each of these methods of aquisituion, or pick one or two alternatives to the trade-contracts, things get a lot easier. I personally recommend Fractals, as they can be done with small effort, on a weekly base with very little time-consumption. And Fractals grant you access to better gear, nice drops and some extra-cash. Playing fractals as a healer might sound weird, but it depends on the group. Compared to regular PvE, there is not much of a big difference and the difficulty scaling helps you improving your builds, combinations and grants you a better understanding of battle-mechanics - which can be handy for certain LS episodes.

*Raids & Meta**WoW. The playerbase of this game is huge and ANet wants to bind several of these people to GW2. This is why we have raids and mounts in this game. But in order to keep the crowd attracted, you need some sort of progression system, which rewards loyal players. That is why the legendary armor is locked behind raids. Else the raiders would not have a motivation aside from the gameplay to do them frequently. The big problem for us mortals is, raids follow strict rules. This is also a thing that was created to bind that certain group of players. We have these annoying timers, which lock away a great ammount of excellent designed non-meta-builds from being used, because the DPS is too low. They want it that way, they get it that way. If they ever request Logan Thakery to wear pink tutu in all his cutscenes, he surely will be the most beautiful ballerina in the entire game.

8500 Trade ContractsAs other people wrote above already, you are not just limited to champions. Doing regular events already helps a lot. Combine the farming with something useful? Try to get 100% Map Completion on these maps, try to get the achievements, unlock the Mastery Points or get a full set of funerary gear. If you are an open-world player as you say, explore the new maps a little. They have plenty of secrets and cool locations. And some of the events are very well designed. The meta-events are not always a good choice, but they are challenging and some are quite rewardful. The bounties become a little monotonous after some time, that is why I would not stick to them as the only way to aquire trade contracts.

New stats for LS3 accesoriesAlthough it is a new story, you would create a giant imbalance. Some of us have thounsands and thousands of unbound magic, we could instantly purchase everything we want and the new maps would die within a few days. I mean, if you can instantly access the new stats. What motivation could you have in staying on these maps, once the achievements are completed?

A great ammount of players who play the Living Story are veterans. And what about the new players who joined during PoF, they would be treated as 2nd class players. The logic that applies to raids, not applies to open world. Raids are designed for a certain group of players, the LS is designed for everyone.

Why only LS3 accesories? Looking at the Backpieces, this would create a conundrum. A few days ago, I helped a guildmember to craft an ascended backpiece with the mystic forge. It was a generation 1 item, with the ability to select stats. In our case, he just wanted bezerker stats, so the selectable options were fine and a lot cheaper than crafting the berzerker-version straight. But if we allow every piece of selectable-stats-gear access to all stat-combinations, we can simply rely on the cheapest versions and ignore a great part of the content.

Removing the metaThis is actually not ANet's problem. The big idea behind the meta is to play on maximum efficiency. In most cases this just means ultimate DPS at any cost. But that is mostly the point of view of the players. Several smaller communities have proven countless of times, that the meta is questionable. In certain situation, following it straight will wipe your squad within seconds - see some of the bounties in PoF. As you may have noticed, I have marked a few words in my text with a *. This stuff depends a lot on the group of people you are playing with. Our community is huge. There are the tunnel-viewed close-minded people who live by the meta, like religious fundamentalist. Discussing with them is a true pain and never leads to any progress at all. They are very noisy and on the first view, you may think they are the majority in this game. That is not the case. They are just a small group. Most people in this community are cheerful, openminded and helpful. As long as they reach their goal, they do not care what stats you play on. And there are certain communities which allow their members to play as they want. Pick a class of your choice, weapon of your choice, build of your choice, play it well. My recommendation for you is, to search for a guild which allows its members to play as they want. These guilds also do top tier fractals and even raids. Ofcourse these groups have harder times than the meta-groups. But as long as you are willing and motivated, the goal is reachable.

I can guarantee that just doing the map events and PoF and combining those with the bounties will not takes months and months to reach 8500 trade contracts. I've personally already spent over 10000 of them on material boxes(and other things, like Mini's) so it's not a dauntless task...and the only time I played it all day long was...never, I was only off when Daybreak was released, but I do prefer spending my time in the PoF maps than any others...I also find them very lucrative as well, at least for my tastes.

You cant get harrier trinkets and you make reckless decision therefore meta builds need to be removed. Makes sense.

So... You want something and ppl suggest you to wvw, PvP, raid and fractals but you say no to that? IMO If ur not willing to play The game in those areas it should take you long to get them