[Gift of Battle] What to know

Note: This was stickied in the older GW2 forums prior to the change, and does not seem to have been transferred over. I am reposting it here as it is a subject of much debate and modifying it with some of the stuff the other posters mentioned as well as new information.

Since this kind of thread keeps reappearing, I figured I'd throw together something that might be stickied to answer this question each time it comes up.

Where did the vendor go that allowed me to buy a Gift of Battle for 500 Badges of Honor?

It was removed from the game, the only way to obtain a Gift of Battle is now is to complete the Gift of Battle Reward Track.

Why did Arenanet make this change?

They haven't said for sure. There isn't a blog post we can point to that explains it. Conjecture varies, but some think it's to make legendaries more... well, legendary and requiring mastery across game modes. Some have speculated it was a way to encourage people to play wvw. Before you could get a boatload of badges of honor from achievement chests and buy gift of battle without ever playing wvw.

It may have always been their intention to have it harder to acquire from the beginning and never had a meaningful way to do it, and the vendor was always a temporary solution to solving the problem; allowing people to obtain a legendary. That temporary solution was no longer needed once a functioning Rewards Track system was part of wvw.

How long does it take to finish the track?

It requires 20,000 reward points to finish any wvw reward track. The maximum acquisition rate is 195 points every 5 minutes at maximum participation, and would take slightly over 8.5 hours to complete while maintaining maximum participation. Edge of the Mists technically works, but progresses at a lower rate (max of 146 per tick).

This can be sped up by using an experience booster (50% gain) and Guild WvW Reward Track Boost (3-10% increase). With these 60% increases, at maximum participation it would take just shy of 5.5 hours to complete the track. This can be further sped up by earning Instant Rewards Track Progress from the Skirmish Rewards track.

Increasing participation requires you to... do stuff in wvw. If there is a commander tag on the Eternal Battlegrounds or your server's borderlands, following them will usually provide some quick participation gains, depending on the quality of the commander and zerg and the opponent you're facing.

Reaching max participation will be different depending on how you're playing or how the match is progressing at the time you log in. If you log in, find a zerg, and lay waste to an enemy zerg, you might reach max participation in 5-10 minutes. If you're roaming it might take 30-60 minutes, so plan your play session accordingly.

Participation will drain to zero in 15 minutes after your participation timer expires. The most common ways to reset the participation timer are to defeat another player or capture an objective to reset the participation timer to 10 minutes. Capturing a sentry point will award 5 minutes. Random guards are only worth 2 minutes.

Some commanders will gladly share squad participation (if you ask for it!) with scouts and roamers. If you offer to watch over an important objective (and call out enemy activities nearby!), most commanders will gladly share participation with you. This is a vital role while defending any of the 3 keeps in your home borderlands.

There are 4 wvw dailies, 2 rare and 2 exotic chests. The rare chests give 250 points each, the exotics 500 points each. Only doing dailies would take 14 days to complete the track, not counting the points you acquire actually doing the dailies.

Why's it take so long?

That's a matter of perspective, world competition and time-gated prerequisites already take a long time (ever make Astralaria or Aurora?), with many taking far longer than the reward track.

Many wvw players lament having to do world competition, but if they want a legendary it's a requirement.

So are all my badges of honor worthless now?

No, there's still lots of useful things you can buy with them.

• Badges of Tribute are required to level scribing and sell well on the trading post.
• Cultural armor is available for a combination of badges and coins that are cheaper than just coins. Completing the cultural armor collection grants a mastery point.
• Exotic armors and weapons can be acquired for various (but not all) stat types.
• Some Laurel items are cheaper with Badges + Laurels.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Badge_of_Honor#Vendors

Ugh, I hate wvw

Remember: Legendaries are optional content. You're no worse off using an ascended item, the stat bonuses are identical. You could craft several ascended pieces for the price of one legendary. Think about the word Legendary for a second.

Many who enjoy wvw don't enjoy all the pve activities required to obtain a legendary and still "suffer" through them, in particular map competition. If you go into it with the mindset that you hate it, you will hate it.

If you go in with an open mindset you might find you enjoy aspects of wvw. Give it a shot, you might like it. In the numerous threads on this subject that have popped up, many players have discovered that they do enjoy wvw. Even if they never make it their primary game mode, it's a nice change of pace. Some of the skills learned from wvw are applicable in other end game content like fractals and raids.

One other thing to consider is that it's efficient to obtain karma in wvw (karma training is a derogatory term from more battle-oriented wvw players), and you need a lot of karma for legendaries. I have watched pve players have trouble obtaining the required karma required, take advantage of it while you're here.

Also worth noting is that every now and then there is a "Spend 25 badges of honor" daily. For those who absolutely cannot stand WvW you can still use your badges to complete this daily, either by going to the guild hall to buy Badges of Tribute (35BoH) or buying a couple siege equipment from a WvW vendor. Then use the potion from the daily to increase your reward track progress.

I think the bonus from the new Black Lion Booster stacks with the one from Experience Booster, so you might want to add that as well.

I would like to add my support to this post of clarification and suggestion for the Gift of Battle... It really is a chore for us PvE folk and it's a burden on WvW folk for us being in WvW just to grind a reward track. Is there any scope to look at reducing the points required to max this track in particular, or even reducing it somehow (and subsequent rewards) to be able to obtain the Gift of Battle with less fuss?

@Fixintothrill.1067 said:I would like to add my support to this post of clarification and suggestion for the Gift of Battle... It really is a chore for us PvE folk and it's a burden on WvW folk for us being in WvW just to grind a reward track. Is there any scope to look at reducing the points required to max this track in particular, or even reducing it somehow (and subsequent rewards) to be able to obtain the Gift of Battle with less fuss?

I will reply you in OP´s fashion.. Is there a way to take a shortcut with map completion ? or is there a way to shorten the time spent in PvE in order to grind out mats for legendary ? No there is not , so why should PvErs get advantage over WvWers in terms of how long it takes to spend the time in their non-favorite game mode ?

@Blackari.2051 said:

@Fixintothrill.1067 said:I would like to add my support to this post of clarification and suggestion for the Gift of Battle... It really is a chore for us PvE folk and it's a burden on WvW folk for us being in WvW just to grind a reward track. Is there any scope to look at reducing the points required to max this track in particular, or even reducing it somehow (and subsequent rewards) to be able to obtain the Gift of Battle with less fuss?

I like it, simple, to the point.

@Fixintothrill.1067 said:I would like to add my support to this post of clarification and suggestion for the Gift of Battle... It really is a chore for us PvE folk and it's a burden on WvW folk for us being in WvW just to grind a reward track. Is there any scope to look at reducing the points required to max this track in particular, or even reducing it somehow (and subsequent rewards) to be able to obtain the Gift of Battle with less fuss?

controls the snarky comment that wants to come outGreat question!

Ok... Getting to tier three starts to get you pips which count towards getting skirmish chests. Each skirmish chest, in ascending fashion (wood, bronze, silver, etc) has mini boosts towards your reward track. So, they HAVE made it faster for you. People have mentioned boosters etc.

Even now, pvpers/pvers complain. They say GoB should be obtainable from other modes (pvp track,pve) as well. I strongly disagree. If you have enough time to do 100% map completion/farm for that 2k gold you need to make the leggy, you most certainly have time to get a GoB within 5-6 hours. It is a LEGENDARY. I liked wvw and became an avid wvw player while i was trying to craft my first leggy. Other people i know have, too.

why do people keep necroing threads like this.

Just put the GoB vender back, and restore wvw map completion required for gift of exploration, no body will ever complain about gift of battle anymore.

@Crossaber.8934 said:Just put the GoB vender back, and restore wvw map completion required for gift of exploration, no body will ever complain about gift of battle anymore.

When WvW map completion is all I need to do for the gift of exploration, then yes. But if I need to map complete in PvE land, they need to WvW for 5-8 whole hours to get the GoB.

Yep. That's spite for sure, but oh well.