Let the drums thunder,Let the banners soar,Let all hope be torn asunder,Let all burn in the Flames of War

Last Friday, seven days before the planned expedition into the Crystal Desert, I offered a Skritt Queen’s ransom to Zommoros. It was an odd combination at an interesting time, no doubt; I even spied Miyani’s raised eyebrow at the corner of my sight. But really, I didn’t care. So into the Mystic Forge I tossed a fancy candelabra and a Gift of Balthazar, the very god that threatens the entirety of Tyria (or so the Black Lion tabloids claim). No, none of those trivialities mattered.

I willed my tensed arm to reach into to swirling mists. The closer my hand neared the center, the louder I could hear the pounding of war drums, echoed by my racing heart. I felt cold sweat trickling down my back, even as an unknown wind buffeted my face, bringing with it the heat of a thousand bonfires . As my fist closed around the handle, all my ears could hear was the roar of a hundred thousand warriors, challenged by a hundred thousand more, one my own joined as a furnace heat engulfed my forearm. With every ounce willpower, I fought the instinct to let go, to retreat to safety, and instead pulled against the Mists, against the weight of the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands that have died in Balthazar’s name, against the anguish, hate, determination, bravery, loyalty…

And before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of the Mystic Plaza, forearm still burning in mystical fire, but with my prize in hand. The journey was long and hard, but here I stood, the legendary Flames of War in my hand.

“So,” interrupted the Skritt Queen, “It will sing, and dance, and serve me dinner. Yes?”

“No, Dawkkurra--”

“QUEEN Dawkkurra to you, peasant-hero-thing!”

“No, Queen Dawkkurra. It’s not that silly thing in that Charr’s castle.”

“Eh,” huffed the Queen. “What’s it good for then? It’s not even that shiny.”

“Yeah, but look! There’s a mini Balthazar standing on the top! Isn’t it so CUUUUTE?”

---

The Flames of War will be my sixth legendary, and (surprisingly) my fourth since returning from a three-year break in April. As I wind down before the launch of Path of Fire, I took the opportunity to reflect on the fun and exciting series of journeys I’ve had these past months, and putting into words the lessons I’ve learned along the way. This isn’t necessarily a be-all-end-all guide, but things that I have found have helped me not only stay sane, but even enjoy the process. This applies to crafting Legendaries, as well as a full set of ascended gear, a unique Exotic, or any other large projects you may have within (and outside of) Guild Wars 2.

Lesson #1: The Goal of Fun

“What’s your gold-per-hour? How quickly can you complete a Legendary? Is that the fastest way?” These are questions I often get asked, and I usually confound people when I give my truthful reply, “I don’t care about all that. I’m just doing things I find fun.”

Best-selling author

gave a talk at Google this April comparing businesses that chased short-term profits with ones that instead strove towards a long-term vision. Where the former would constantly shift priorities, cut corners, and race after ever-moving targets, the latter would be focused on a journey, a cause, or a vision of a goal that they know exists, but not necessarily certain how far away they are from it. And invariably, Sinek posits, businesses that obsess on the short-term reactions of the market will lose their sense of direction, run out will and resources, and eventually drop out. The “infinite player,” on the other hand, will carry on innovating and making profits, because to them profits and new products are milestones on their journey, and not the journey itself.

Rather interestingly, I have found this to be very similar with how we play games, especially in massive and persistent games like MMOs. Some players will approach the game with a singular goal in mind, whether it’s “I want to get the Best-In-Slot gear!” or “I want to make Eternity!” or “I want to be World’s First to complete the new raid!” They will then seek out the path that leads them to their goal the fastest, and hunker down for long sessions of Fractal 40 or RIBA farms, or speedrun gathering routes with multiple characters and/or accounts, or even spend extended hours researching and trading commodities on the Trading Post. Some will become bored with the grind halfway and give up, while others will eventually reach their goal, whatever that may be. Even then those that have succeeded to achieve these short-term goals will feel “lost,” and will usually crave for more content that appeals to their niche. More often than not, they too will run out of interest in the game and move on.

Three years ago, I chased after every single PPT on one WvW map then the next, and the next, and eventually I, too, moved on. Since then, I’ve come to truly appreciate what it is to have “fun” in a game. Rather than rushing through the house to solve whatever there was to solve, I meandered amidst the artifacts of a family life in stasis in Gone Home. Rather than being led by the nose through the grand epic of the Witcher 3, I walked through wilderness and busy streets, soaking in the atmosphere, listening in to conversations, and otherwise enjoying the magical world CD Projekt RED had built. Rather than worry about post-60-minute Survival meta builds, I sought out interesting weapon, Warframe and mod synergies in Warframe.

Since returning to Tyria, I set out to first and foremost enjoy the game. I didn’t have any tangible goals. While I was interested to see how far ArenaNet has brought their game, I was mainly interested in using the game to pass my time. Then along the way, I completed projects--small or Legendary--that would become milestones in my journey.

In other words, I think it is always more important to find something fun to do in the game, and prioritise your playing time around that. Your big projects are your finite, short-term goals that will become markers along your journey, but they should never be the journey itself.

Lesson #2: Bite-sized

Having managed projects of varying sizes, from singular purchases to a ten-year master plan, I’ve learnt the value to taking the time to break down the undertaking into bite-sized chunks. Not only does it make larger projects less daunting to consider, thereby improving the project team’s morale, it also gives the team a sense of direction, and therefore allow for more efficient delegation of work. The completion of each task would also give the team a clear idea of their progression through the project’s timeline.

The same can be applied to in-game projects. For example, taken as a lump-sum item, crafting the Legendary sniper rifle may seem like a mountain scaleable only by the most hardcore players. However, when you break down the entire crafting process into its smaller, finite components, things suddenly look more manageable. Amazing fan-made resources like GW2 Efficiency give a complete breakdown of the individual components that go into making the legendary weapon. While I definitely won’t be able to gather all 35,550 Elder Wood Logs in a single day, I found it easier to set bite-sized milestones of, for example, the first 3,600 Logs for the Schooner, and so on. And slowly, but surely, each milestone, however minor, brings me closer to the Legendary.

Ultimately, what is considered “bite-sized” depends on the individual and what they can achieve in a given time frame. The point is to set yourself many “easy” goals that contribute to the completion of the project. It could be a map a day on your journey towards the Gift of Exploration, or a kill a day in your attempt to obtain Rhendak’s Signet. The fact of the matter is, a journey isn’t made in a single bound, but by many, many steps.

Lesson #3: Perceived Progress

I remember vividly when I was on a 33.6k dialup modem and attempting to download a 5MB file. I would sit there transfixed at the screen, watching a loading bar creep, millimeter by millimeter, towards completion. 12-year old me would literally be cheering the progress bar on, getting excited whenever the download rate would spike, disappointed whenever it dipped to zero. I joke about that silly kid today, but I have also come to realize that behavior wasn’t unique to me. As it turns out, people really like visibly seeing progression.

In his book, Delivering Happiness, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh recounts how they changed the way the company promoted employees. Rather than a single, significant promotion after eighteen months, they chose to instead give “smaller incremental promotions every six months.” Even though the end result was the same--whether in terms of training, certification, or pay--employees were found to be much happier “because there is an ongoing sense of perceived progress.” A multi-year study by Amabile and Kramer at the Harvard Business Review also found that perceived progress, even incremental completions of specific tasks, positively impacted the mood and motivation of employees.

If you’ve never tried it, start your day with a to-do list of the things you want to get done on that day itself. Each item can be minor or major, requiring one minute of your time or a couple hours. Check off each item as they are completed. Then, the most important step: at the end of the day, pull that list back out and look at all the tasks you have completed. Even if it’s a single day in the grand scheme of things, looking back and seeing the progress you have made throughout your day is exhilarating.

And guess what? That applies to games too! We see it in the increasing experience bar, the decreasing boss health bar, and the advancing pip progression towards the next Skirmish Chest. Each visual indicator of progression is a shot of dopamine in our system, injecting into us a sense of accomplishment and further motivating us to continue playing. This is also why breaking down a large project into small bite-sized chunks works so well.

I personally used GW2 Efficiency to track my progress through each legendary. By linking my account API to the site, I was able to track the various material I acquired each day in relation to the overall total of the legendary, which is then handily represented as a sum gold value. So at the end of each play session, I would open that bookmark and watch that gold-required number go down, while also watching my in-game gold creeping closer each day to meet it. Whether it was 20 gold today, or 10 gold the next, each day’s progression could be visually represented, and thereby giving me a constant source of motivation to press on.

I’m sure there are many other organizational methods you can use that are readily available, from simple to-do lists to some fancy, hyper-detailed Gantt Chart. Whatever it is, finding some way to allow yourself to see where you are in the project, and--just as important--how far you’ve come will greatly improve your gaming experience.

Lesson #4: Strut That Stuff

If you’ve ever been in Lion’s Arch for a decent period of time, you’ll likely notice the de facto tradition of players taking that final step towards forging their legendary item. We would link the four final pieces of the recipe in Map Chat, just before tossing them into Zommoros’ Forge, then again link the resulting item, taking copious amounts of screenshots before, during, and after the process.

Yes! Absolutely celebrate your achievement! Flaunt that shiney new legendary! Flip on that Catmander tag! Bask in the glory of your new “The Blazing Light” title! Laugh out loud at your depleted in-game wallet! Breathe that sigh of relief as you look back at that 3,600 gold crafting cost you just overcame! Hopefully it isn’t the end of your journey, but regardless, it will be one you’ll remember for some time.

In the end, regardless of what you set out to achieve, I hope you had fun, and will continue having fun.

Lesson #5: Help Another

“The Gates of Whatever stand in between the salvation of the world and millennials.”

This is something I still struggle with. For the most part, I rarely, if ever, cared about other people beyond my immediate family and a handful of close friends. People were numbers on a spreadsheet that broke my things, and whine all day with their horrible txt-ing of the privileges they were entitled. Regrettably that was also how I saw my coworkers and teammates, and to an extent even my board members. People were things I didn’t care for, let alone have a desire to help.

Luckily, due to my recent change of environment, and having met some amazing mentors have showed me the joy of helping other people, for no explicit reason whatsoever. And amazingly, it feels good helping people, especially when they notice and appreciate the help given. Even in a digital environment where the “person” I’m helping is some giant-sized Asura with a pink fuzzy bear hat, that amazing feeling as oxytocin seeps into your system is still present. Humans are social animals, and I think a truly sustainable society is made of people who are willing to set aside personal gains to lift up a fellow human being, even in a digital game.

So if ever a guildmate asks for help taking down the Vinetooth Prime in Auric Basin, be there to volunteer yourself. Not because of some promised reward, or the expectation of reciprocal aid in the future, but because it’s the right thing to do. Or if somebody gets lost in their own journey towards some awesome goal, share the lessons you have learned.

---

“So, you help Queen Dawkkurra make glowey prince love me. Yes? Yes!”

What? Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Great Post, thank you.

After 1500 hours of gameplay, I've been busting my behind crafting ONE single legendary (it's nowhere near finished) and haven't been able to gather a single ascended set. Four legendaries since April? Makes me wonder what I am even doing in this game.

All bitterness aside, I'm happy for you :D A great post indeed, keep having fun and see you in the Crystal Desert!

@Hevoskuuri.3891 said:After 1500 hours of gameplay, I've been busting my behind crafting ONE single legendary (it's nowhere near finished) and haven't been able to gather a single ascended set. Four legendaries since April? Makes me wonder what I am even doing in this game.

All bitterness aside, I'm happy for you :D A great post indeed, keep having fun and see you in the Crystal Desert!

Good luck on your journey, and see you in the Desert!

@Hevoskuuri.3891 said:After 1500 hours of gameplay, I've been busting my behind crafting ONE single legendary (it's nowhere near finished) and haven't been able to gather a single ascended set. Four legendaries since April? Makes me wonder what I am even doing in this game.

All bitterness aside, I'm happy for you :D A great post indeed, keep having fun and see you in the Crystal Desert!

Once you get to a certain point, you have the resources and the knowledge to make the game easier, so I'm not surprised Ojimaru was able to make a few in a short time. I have been playing since beta and am a very casual player. I didn't even worry about Legendaries or Ascended gear because I knew I didn't want to work that hard at the game. Toward the beginning of this year (after ~4 years of casual playing) I decided I finally had enough resources saved to make a Legendary. I chose Chuka & Champawat. The only thing holding me up at this point is the Amalgamated Gemstones, but I'm getting there. And over the time it took me to create this Legendary, I've saved yet more materials and gold and will soon be starting my next.

But I'm a Saver - I don't spend gold or sell off resources. One time I sold a Silver Doubloon and I immediately regretted it. So I had quite a lot of materials filling up my inventory, over 1,000 Laurels because I only spent a few, etc.

Good luck with your gear! :)

Thanks for the input, @Djinn.9245. And yes, experience with the game helps. Over my five-year history with Guild Wars 2, have over 4,500 hours logged, and many more in the forums and subreddit. Having an understanding of the game in general really helped me better plan out my process better. I was also lucky to have had helpful input from the community, too.

“What’s your gold-per-hour? How quickly can you complete a Legendary? Is that the fastest way?” These are questions I often get asked, and I usually confound people when I give my truthful reply, “I don’t care about all that. I’m just doing things I find fun.”

Fourth legendary in 5-6 months. I mean, grats, but that obviously indicates that "gold per hour" was certainly a factor, given how much there is to buy for the game's material sinks. 10-20g per day? I'd ache to get that much cash. I'm struggling to build my third in five years, and even that might not have happened if dailies didn't start rewarding very generously.

And I get that the game needs a bit of a grind (that I don't mind, hey that rhymed), but some of what's asked for is excessive. Mystic Clover RNG at roughly 6 gold per reasonable chance. Amalgamated Gemstones that take either golds-worth of otherwise-unloved Jewelcrafting materials and a dreadful Dragon Stand addiction (which again, I wouldn't mind, if the map weren't such a butt to get into...) which is still more RNG, since the chests give 1, 3, 10, or 14, but almost always 1 Crystalline Ore.It stops being an entertaining journey when all that's left is 217 Amalgems or another 5 agonizing hours of Walk v Walk for Gift of Battle.

Lesson #2

I'm glad you mentioned GW2 Efficiency! I long considered it the domain of baleful market flippers and trading barons, but it's an excellent tool for organizing the material steps, especially in older legendaries (post-precursor). I keep the browser tab open just so I can see how close I am.

So if ever a guildmate asks for help taking down the Vinetooth Prime in Auric Basin, be there to volunteer yourself.

If there's one thing a Legendary journey (or even the Elite Spec weapons) has taught me, it's how badly some events suck, and how relieving it is to get help without pulling teeth. I seek to be the person that helps with that, be it another Vinetooth kill, HP hunting, old story dungeons.. I really should pop my apple tag more.

Very nice post. +1 from me.

@Rauderi.8706 said:

“What’s your gold-per-hour? How quickly can you complete a Legendary? Is that the fastest way?” These are questions I often get asked, and I usually confound people when I give my truthful reply, “I don’t care about all that. I’m just doing things I find fun.”

There's a difference between needing gold and being hyper-aware of your number of gold/hour. And in creating Chuka & Champawat I needed hardly any gold - I had 90 or so percent of the mats in my storage.

And I get that the game needs a bit of a grind (that I don't mind, hey that rhymed), but some of what's asked for is excessive. Mystic Clover RNG at roughly 6 gold per reasonable chance. Amalgamated Gemstones that take either golds-worth of otherwise-unloved Jewelcrafting materials and a dreadful Dragon Stand addiction (which again, I wouldn't mind, if the map weren't such a butt to get into...) which is still more RNG, since the chests give 1, 3, 10, or 14, but almost always 1 Crystalline Ore.It stops being an entertaining journey when all that's left is 217 Amalgems or another 5 agonizing hours of Walk v Walk for Gift of Battle.

For Mystic Clovers I used Chests of Loyalty. I didn't need to gamble for any. And Amalgamated Gemstones don't only come from Dragon Stand chests, but from all HoT map's Hero's Choice chests. You can get 1 Hero's Choice chest from each HoT map meta per day. Getting Crystalline Ore from the pods in Dragon's Stand is a pain, but you can easily get something like 30 pods per completed map. If Dragon's Stand is the Daily Event map, that makes finding a map easier. But I completely agree about Amalgamated Gemstones which are the worst part IMO.

Nicely written, @Ojimaru.8970 :)

@Rauderi.8706 said:

“What’s your gold-per-hour? How quickly can you complete a Legendary? Is that the fastest way?” These are questions I often get asked, and I usually confound people when I give my truthful reply, “I don’t care about all that. I’m just doing things I find fun.”

When you consider that Fractal 40 farms and RIBA farms give purportedly 25-30 gold per hour, my per day average is actually quite low. I'm just lucky I'm able to run T4 Fractals with a (semi-)static group every day, which attributes to the bulk of my gold income.

@Rauderi.8706 said:And I get that the game needs a bit of a grind (that I don't mind, hey that rhymed), but some of what's asked for is excessive. Mystic Clover RNG at roughly 6 gold per reasonable chance. Amalgamated Gemstones that take either golds-worth of otherwise-unloved Jewelcrafting materials and a dreadful Dragon Stand addiction (which again, I wouldn't mind, if the map weren't such a butt to get into...) which is still more RNG, since the chests give 1, 3, 10, or 14, but almost always 1 Crystalline Ore.It stops being an entertaining journey when all that's left is 217 Amalgems or another 5 agonizing hours of Walk v Walk for Gift of Battle.

Yeah, the Gift of Battle was a doozy, especially since I've fallen out of love for WvW. But, I've learned to do the easier WvW Dailies, like Big Spender, Master of Monuments, Guard Killer, etc. and use the essences to boost my Reward Track. As for Amalgamated Gemstones, I decided to think of it as another gold sink, as it was much easier converting Orbs to Gemstones than it was hoping for a 3-4 each day. It also helps that my two favorite Season 3 maps, Bitterfrost Frontier and Siren's Landing, have a decent number of Corals to farm.

@Rauderi.8706 said:

So if ever a guildmate asks for help taking down the Vinetooth Prime in Auric Basin, be there to volunteer yourself.

Ha ha, same here! I've been lucky enough to tag along with some [EVA] meta trains, or joined up with some truly amazing Commanders, and took the opportunity to model after how they handled individual meta events. That way, whenever I needed to step up, I was a little more confident I wouldn't be leading a zerg off a cliff.

@TheGrimm.5624Very nice post. +1 from me.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:Nicely written, @Ojimaru.8970 :)

Thank you! <3