The single and most frustrating thing about GW2.

The feel of being rewarded. I have been playing MMOs since 1998, and while I love GW2, I absolutely HATE the loot system.

Almost everything is random, and you get your bags filled with junk constantly. Bag Wars 2 its been called and its not so far from the truth.

They had an amazing currency karma, which could have been used as a base currency to get the things you wanted, and to combo them with new maps so people couldnt just stock pile and burn it on new maps, but it was squandered, then changed, then new systems were put into place that were the same in use.... but change for the sake of change.

I really think this game could benefit from a refresh of the loot system. Add new interesting things we could farm for, grind for, and PLAY for, instead of do your "daily dose of disappointment"s, in-game loot boxes.

I'm SO bored of the loot in gw2 that nothing about killing a boss, doing a fractal, opening up a chest, finishing a JP, is exciting... The loot system is not exciting.

There's a video on youtube that explains how the magic find works.Sometimes it's just pure luck.

The current loot system has too many ultra rare drops to allow making it rewarding for everyone. Using RNG on that ultra rare scale only appears fair in population statistics, but will leave most individuals feeling unrewarded. It took me like 4 years before I got a precursor drop, and by that time they were worth a small fraction of their former prices. I gave up trying to get Tequatl's Hoard after doing the event daily for like over a year, and still have never had a drop, while others are well on their way of completing that weapon skin set. If Anet weighted rare drops by the number of common RNG results, then there might be some sort of RNG social justice, but as it stands, anyone without a gambling addiction is probably turned off by the loot system, or has just been on the unusually lucky side of the curve.

shrug This isn't a new issue and I don't expect anything to change.

@"Kahrgan.7401" said:The feel of being rewarded. I have been playing MMOs since 1998, and while I love GW2, I absolutely HATE the loot system.

Almost everything is random, and you get your bags filled with junk constantly. Bag Wars 2 its been called and its not so far from the truth.

They had an amazing currency karma, which could have been used as a base currency to get the things you wanted, and to combo them with new maps so people couldnt just stock pile and burn it on new maps, but it was squandered, then changed, then new systems were put into place that were the same in use.... but change for the sake of change.

I really think this game could benefit from a refresh of the loot system. Add new interesting things we could farm for, grind for, and PLAY for, instead of do your "daily dose of disappointment"s, in-game loot boxes.

I'm SO bored of the loot in gw2 that nothing about killing a boss, doing a fractal, opening up a chest, finishing a JP, is exciting... The loot system is not exciting.

@Random Wax Orc.7695 said:The current loot system has too many ultra rare drops to allow making it rewarding for everyone. Using RNG on that ultra rare scale only appears fair in population statistics, but will leave most individuals feeling unrewarded. It took me like 4 years before I got a precursor drop, and by that time they were worth a small fraction of their former prices. I gave up trying to get Tequatl's Hoard after doing the event daily for like over a year, and still have never had a drop, while others are well on their way of completing that weapon skin set. If Anet weighted rare drops by the number of common RNG results, then there might be some sort of RNG social justice, but as it stands, anyone without a gambling addiction is probably turned off by the loot system, or has just been on the unusually lucky side of the curve.

shrug This isn't a new issue and I don't expect anything to change.

Both hit the nail on the head! Cheers...

Entirely too much of the rewards in GW2 are driven by stupendous luck, excessive grind, or convoluted collections (which also involve the former two). It doesn't help that some of the achievements that give rewards are also poorly designed: no fast retry mechanics, incredibly picky requirements.

Whenever Anet adds something exciting to go for it's either a one-in-a-million drop or, if tied to actual playing the game good, they get yelled at that not everyone can get it. The community did this to itself, at least a good chunk of it.

@lokh.2695 said:Whenever Anet adds something exciting to go for it's either a one-in-a-million drop or, if tied to actual playing the game good, they get yelled at that not everyone can get it. The community did this to itself, at least a good chunk of it.Exactly.Can you imagine the outcry if for example, the new Charr head gear would have a high drop rate but account-bound and behind a very challenging content? It will be prestigious!

Yeah this is one of the main reasons why I get bored with this game. I do come back but there's big breaks and most of the time after a couple of months I'm bored again. The game can be fun for a bit but repetition needs consistent rewards to keep interesting and this game doesn't do that very well. Loot just isn't exciting 99.9% of the time and then I start wondering why I'm even doing those same things over and over again.

played since launch many 1000's of hours and never dropped a pre cursor... so what the chance of a top infusion dropping.. I dont even bother trying anymore I have much better thing to do with my time

@borgs.6103 said:

@"lokh.2695" said:Whenever Anet adds something exciting to go for it's either a one-in-a-million drop or, if tied to actual playing the game good, they get yelled at that not everyone can get it. The community did this to itself, at least a good chunk of it.Exactly.Can you imagine the outcry if for example, the new Charr head gear would have a high drop rate but account-bound and behind a very challenging content? It will be prestigious!

It doesnt even need to be challenging. Account bound loot that can be obtained at a decent rate would please me far more than the loot in game now. Even the rare skins i have i dont feel anything towards cause i had to -buy- them, and the skins ive "earned" i hate due to how grindy they where. Theres a fine middle ground that can exist and its yet to be seen IMO in this game.

I alternate between Diablo 3 and this game because I feel two things in Diablo that I don't feel here: excited about rare drops and powerful.

@Kahrgan.7401 said:[...]I'm SO bored of the loot in gw2 that nothing about killing a boss, doing a fractal, opening up a chest, finishing a JP, is exciting... The loot system is not exciting.

:+1: Ditto.

Not the most frustrating thing for me, but its certainly top five.

This may sound strange to people, but the thing to keep in mind is how combat-centric GW2 is. I never would have though that it would become a negative, but there are so few activities that aren't related directly with combat that drops for non-combat items that people want to interact with are quite low. As far as the RPG in MMORPG is concerned, GW2 is probably the weakest among its contemporaries. There aren't a lot of things to do outside of beating something in the head, but being concise, lets talk about some of the things that drop that aren't our bog standard green, blue, and yellow UnIDs:

Chairs - I remember when the Bench of the Final Judge was released and thought: neat. But most at the end of the day, it is just a chair after all.Minis - This is purely speaking for myself, but I don't remember a time I was ever excited for miniatures in GW2.Exotics [Weapons] - These are about the only things of value to a player who wants neat looking stuff. Gear being what it is, exotics are just there for the unlock to me. At least there are a ton of skins to unlock.Exotics [Armors] - Even more problematic than weapons is armor since there are only so many exotic sets that drop in the wild. One per each armor type to my immediate recollection... Probably the worse off between Weapons vs. Armor.Purchasable Items w/Tokens or map currencies [Tonics, toys, gizmos, etc] - Sure they can be neat, but their novelty is a bit hard to recapture. I don't personally get a lot of value out of these, but I have a few just from playing so long.Dropable Tonics, Toys, Etc - See my personal thoughts about minis.Infusions - Well, I've received one infusion drop in all my life, a Queen Bee drop, and I sold that at a disgracefully low amount compared to contemporary prices... but that was it, and that was 3-4 years ago by this point.... Sure, they're fancy, but I'm not gonna try to farm for them at the rate that they're dropping, hecks naw...

We don't build too many items that aren't for the purpose of bonking a creature but here are a few of those:

Scribing for Guild Halls - It can be fun, especially if the guild chips in and everyone has a good attitude, but it's expensive for the layperson to start, and can be grueling to finish, or even add to things once up at max. Generally, a person doesn't scribe for themselves in the context of what GW2 wants scribes to be.Legendary Crafting for Profit - it's a good way to do it, if you can stick with a certain type of playstyle. Not for everyone, truly.

That... feels like it? I could be forgetting something, but it feels like GW2 is scared of doing more. And yes, I get that there will be some cynics out there who will say things to the effect of "Well yeah, they can barely manage what they have!" and to those, I halfway agree with you, but if I committed to 100% agreement, I would really have to accept a lot of things about GW2 that I don't believe are true, without going into a digression.

@"Kahrgan.7401" said:The feel of being rewarded. I have been playing MMOs since 1998, and while I love GW2, I absolutely HATE the loot system.

Almost everything is random, and you get your bags filled with junk constantly. Bag Wars 2 its been called and its not so far from the truth.

They had an amazing currency karma, which could have been used as a base currency to get the things you wanted, and to combo them with new maps so people couldnt just stock pile and burn it on new maps, but it was squandered, then changed, then new systems were put into place that were the same in use.... but change for the sake of change.

I really think this game could benefit from a refresh of the loot system. Add new interesting things we could farm for, grind for, and PLAY for, instead of do your "daily dose of disappointment"s, in-game loot boxes.

I'm SO bored of the loot in gw2 that nothing about killing a boss, doing a fractal, opening up a chest, finishing a JP, is exciting... The loot system is not exciting.

While I understand where you are coming from ... the old ways were worse ... do a raid 100 times at the small chance for a drop and hope you win the roll for it. What I don't get ... you praise karma. Gold isn't any different, you just need another step to convert to get it.

Frankly, the game is way too old for a complete loot revamp for meaningful drops. To be fair, they recently turned more things into the bags so if you didn't know ... that's the direction.

maybe it is just me but i see nothing wrong with the loot system. i play other mmo and the drop rate of items are the same. you need to do dungeons and raids 100 just to get what you want, sometime i take months or even years but thats is mmo games they are about rng and luck. i am sorry but no patience with rng's than mmo isnt a game for some people

As a new player, finding LS3 the content I keep going back too.

I don't know what I will do when I get bored of LS3.

bag inception (bag inside of a bags/boxes)I get tired of most appealing stuff always being funneled through gem store. Its basically find the most gold per hour spots and trade gold to gems. It is what it is and not likely to change.

the era where i most played gw2 is when Auric Basic farm was on, i played almost 6hrs+ everyday.

I think it would help more if there was something interesting to do with the "junk" loot. And by "interesting", I don't mean "make it a required component in some endgame gear for no good reason". Give us interesting things, new things, expendable things.

Give us bundles we can craft with the stuff we get from salvaging and harvesting lower level stuff. Some for combat, some just for toys. Imagine a "Shiny Flute" item that, when used, replaces your weapon skills with attacks performed by a small group of Skritt responding to your flute playing. Maybe not as good as your weapon skills, but FUN. Now imagine a group trying to clear a dungeon/fractal with only the flutes. Imagine "Brass Clockwork" mounts that are summoned by player crafted items like the ones mount rentals give you to allow you to summon your rented mount for a limited time.

The Watchwork Portal item is a great example of what I'm talking about, save for what it takes to make it. Let us make things like that with our "junk" rewards (or what we get for salvaging them). If the rewards lead to fun, then people will be happy to get them.

Most single and frustrating thing?How ungrateful people are.

If I had to pick a secondary "most frustrating", it's encounter design that lazily leans on over-punishment and frequent/long hard-CC. It's not clever, it doesn't teach. It's just a holdover from the days when the devs wanted it to be more punishing/obnoxious/"hard".

The thing I dislike most about GW2 is the lack of non combat activities. There’s almost nothing to do that doesn’t involve mass murder of things. The combat in GW2 is fun, and I enjoy it a lot, but it’d never nice to have some things to break up the monotony.

The new zone is a step in the right direction imo, with adding a ton of events that are largely non combat, I’d argue the rock concert event isn’t exactly a combat event either even though there is “fighting” in it. Would be cool to get more events like that!

The feeling of abandonment of the wvw game mode.

I know its not actually 'abandoned' but it certainly appears to be such a low priority as to be that way.

Hmm, personally I never thought the loot system was a problem for me. I've solved it pretty handily by just flat out ignoring it, since I've been playing for the combat anyways. I just enjoy that I can setup a build easy and fast with exotics and spare ascended if I got some in the bank, and just get to playing.

If anything I'd wish they just removed more of the middle steps in the loot, less bags and boxes, and green/blue gear, and just gave us mats and currency directly, and enable me to just set "auto store all mats to bank, ignore my bags". So I could just continue to ignore it even more.

Then again I'm not a fan of games with gearing/treadmilling and never cared one twit for the "omg rare drop!!!" feeling. And all over consider RNG to be a game design crime. So I guess it is pretty obvious that I'm not going to see eye to eye on this topic.

the more I play and look at GW2 I'd actually be in favor of rewamping all the rewards in the game over to a "reward track" system, so everything in the entire game got similar amount of loot for the same time played, irrelevant of what you did. So farming centaurs in Queensdale would reward the same as doing dragons stand or fractals or pvp etc. I'd love to see how player behaviour changed accordingly, would be a very interesting social experiment.

“A sad fact about you players, as a whole: you only do what you are rewarded for. You will do something less fun if you see a carrot at the end of the stick, and you will ignore something more fun if it doesn’t give you a “ding” or an XP reward or a title.” – Raph Koster/Holocron (11-26-2002 10:55 PM), SWG