the grind for mounts needs to be toned down

[maddoctor.2738]

@"scerevisiae.1972" said:doesn't need to stick. if you can buy it for real money, and the item/upgrade is not purely cosmetic, it's a pay-to-win item/upgrade by definition, even if the "win" impact appears small.

most people would say just being able to purchase gold for real money automatically makes a game P2W.

P2W is so common in the games industry today that expect all the white knighting is from younger players who are just used to it.

So expansions and subscriptions are pay 2 win too right? Since you buy them for real money and what they offer is not purely cosmetic. If everything is P2W according to your definition then we need something else here to differentiate the "seriousness" of P2W

[Tseison.4659]

I feel the only problem I’m having with said “grind” is the Skyscale one. Heck, I found the beetle and warclaw to be painless and easy going...

[hotskitty.8269]

I personally would have preferred a little more grind for the normal mounts. I think we were given mounts a little too easily. The skyscale was kinda the perfect amount for earning them.

The Griffon/Beetle/Warclaw was pretty cool, but I like to feel like I've earned and gone through a story to get my stuff. It means a story can be told.

[Luthan.5236]

I am now at the griffon. Just started with the whole PoF stuff only a few weeks ago and everything is super quick compared to HoT. The mastery for the 4 basic mounts are unlocked fast by just playing the game normally. (I did not rush the story but I did full map completion while doing it. And doing some events including meta events every now and then + going for the mastery points.)

Skimmer collection was nice and fun. I guess they wanted players to re-visit older maps and doing some of the older events there. (Totally new players might not have even been in those maps.) Yeah: The mastery exp needed there ... took a bit longer. It still accumulated normally. it only migh be annoying if you want to rush content ... wanting to play on later stuff (Icebrood Saga) and not staying in the PoF maps.

Currently I'm still playing in order of release and got the exp for underwater skimmer mastery by just completing other stuff in the 5 basic PoF maps: While going for the griffon collection I completed all the other minor map and story achievements (except bounties I will leave these for the last and maybe doing them later when revisiting the maps on daily achievements) I just earned enough exp.

Looking forward to the griffon. And the other (beetle and skyscale) later mounts. Nothing felt grindy so far. HoT took much longer. (But with a similar approach: Gaining exp while doing all the map completion and other minor achievements - it was fun and did not feel grindy.)

I can understand the thing with the money (gold). But I also remember that back then in WoW after release ... it felt pretty grindy to get a mount. Here in GW2 there are tons of ways to earn money. Even if you don't want to to raids and stuff. Just takes a lil bit longer. But you can get 2g from daily + a mystic coin to sell from anomaly. Then salvaging an selling ectos ... (Personally fractal rush got me into fractals. I usually try to avoid group content. But up until T2 they are fine for me now. And just the dailies make at least 10+ gold additionally.)

I guess Skyscale CAN be cheaper? (At least from the wiki it reads as if the most important part are items you can buy and use to skip certain JP collection steps. Which I might just do for fun and to save money. :D)

[QuirkyDM.2351]

Just want to add on to Luthan's comments. I'm in the middle of getting the griffin and I consider it some of the most entertaining content in PoF. The connection to the Sunspears feels like a better story than most of the actual story mode in PoF. It also lets you go back and pull together a lot of elements in the maps dealing with Sunspears and connect them into a story. I am also revisiting a few areas with new purpose and discovering some areas I didn't fully explore before even with map completion done. Besides that, this is a collection done right, as every time you recover a griffin egg, you can mount a griffin. This lets you fly through the maps and get a glimpse of what your final reward will be. (I recommend getting the Aurene mastery from LW4 first as it will let you enjoy the griffin even more) It's satisfying now while giving a look at the bigger payoff down the road. I wasn't planning on going for the Skyscale, but I might seriously look at it after the way the Griffin hunt is going.

[DarcShriek.5829]

The High percentage of players that have the griffon and skyscale mounts suggests that the effort to earn these mounts is not too much.

[Kirin.7306]

@KAipurge.2147 said:I feel like this all started once the original Anet founders left.

Amen. RIP to them all. Maybe they can make their own company again? Please do.

[maddoctor.2738]

@Kirin.7306 said:

@"KAipurge.2147" said:I feel like this all started once the original Anet founders left.

Amen. RIP to them all. Maybe they can make their own company again? Please do.

They didn't die, they left, so saying "RIP" is very inappropriate. By the way most of Anet's founders are in other companies now.

[Dawdler.8521]

@DarcShriek.5829 said:The High percentage of players that have the griffon and skyscale mounts suggests that the effort to earn these mounts is not too much.Because it's really not.

The Skyscale steps are well document, there's youtube clips and all it does is take time and a minor amount of effort. A couple of weeks maybe.

But no, they want it instantly. Anything else wont do.

It's the exact same argument for GoB. Oh you've taken 6 months to almost craft your legendary but now when you have to spend like... 6 hours in WvW then the game is suddenly ruined.

[mindcircus.1506]

@Dawdler.8521 said:It's the exact same argument for GoB. Oh you've taken 6 months to almost craft your legendary but now when you have to spend like... 6 hours in WvW then the game is suddenly ruined.Never mind the fact that these same players will spend 12 solid hours farming elder wood.

[XenoSpyro.1780]

In the time spent creating this thread, you could have put on Food/Utility consumables, with an XP and Celebration booster, followed relevant map meta events while tagging every nearby mob, and would have finished off your mastery leveling. Even consumables like Raptor/Beetle treats would have pushed you further.

[medivh.4725]

Agreed. The given list for skyscale is madness

[Sobx.1758]

@medivh.4725 said:Agreed. The given list for skyscale is madness

What you do is stop treating it as a single achievement and treat it like a list of achievements, completing them one-task-at-the-time. And suddenly it's not madness.

[Hesione.9412]

@Sobx.1758 said:

@medivh.4725 said:Agreed. The given list for skyscale is madness

What you do is stop treating it as a single achievement and treat it like a list of achievements, completing them one-task-at-the-time. And suddenly it's not madness.

Yes, the skyscale isn't a goal that's designed to be knocked off in a couple of hours.

I find it interesting that a bunch of posts on the forums are from players who complain that there isn't enough new content in the game, and other posts are from players who complain that there is a series of events to complete in order to reach a goal.

Possibly this means that Anet has the balance about right. :)

[dronzer.8392]

As a returning player, and someone who just wants to catch-up to the latest, it really makes you jump through hoops, it feels like the goal of all this stuff to keep you playing the game and doesn't really respect your time, the list for the skyscale literally put me off, it was a pain to get through the first 2 and then when I was told you need 250 of the map tokens later on, was like hell no.  

The more I look at this game after being away for so long, the more I feel it's gotten out of control and it really needs a cleanup to the majority of it's core systems and designs. 

I hope end of dragons doesn't further add to the bloat, but takes a much cleaner and simpler design approach. 

Edited January 30, 2022 by dronzer.8392

[Sobx.1758]

1 hour ago, dronzer.8392 said:

As a returning player, and someone who just wants to catch-up to the latest, it really makes you jump through hoops, it feels like the goal of all this stuff to keep you playing the game and doesn't really respect your time, the list for the skyscale literally put me off, it was a pain to get through the first 2 and then when I was told you need 250 of the map tokens later on, was like hell no.  

The more I look at this game after being away for so long, the more I feel it's gotten out of control and it really needs a cleanup to the majority of it's core systems and designs. 

I hope end of dragons doesn't further add to the bloat, but takes a much cleaner and simpler design approach. 

You're fine playing with "base" mounts, if you don't want to get any other than the initial ones then just don't. In regards of mount system, the base 4 are "core" -for pve- as far as I see it and I wouldn't say they need any cleanup.

Also if 250 map currency is too much, try looking into s4 "return to..." achievements rewards.

Edited January 30, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Did you consult the Wiki for all the ways to acquire Season 4 map currency? Some are quite easy, actually. 

[Bellshom.1847]

As a casual player i'm really enjoying working towards skyscale, chipping away at it slowly. Would have been cool if all mounts were a little bit harder to get.

[Vayne.8563]

On 1/3/2021 at 9:50 PM, Kirin.7306 said:

Amen. RIP to them all. Maybe they can make their own company again? Please do.

Except Mike O'Brien was a founding member and he was here to relatively recently, after the Skyscale collection was added for sure.

[Sugar Min.5834]

On 9/6/2020 at 8:43 AM, KAipurge.2147 said:

I feel like this all started once the original Anet founders left.

I noticed that too. While many players have the Skyscale despite the ridiculous grind, there are even more without it. Some of my guildlies even find getting the Beetle is tedious. The new team makes it worst. Almost every thing is tied down to achievements and achievements mean lots of grind; be it mount, map buffs, mastery points, festival backpacks, god knows what else is coming.

Over the years, the developers slowly took away the fun in GW2 and turned them into chores. It's Grind War 2 now. Booo

Edited January 30, 2022 by Mil.3562

[Maikimaik.1974]

1 hour ago, Mil.3562 said:

I noticed that too. While many players have the Skyscale despite the ridiculous grind, there are even more without it. Some of my guildlies even find getting the Beetle is tedious. The new team makes it worst. Almost every thing is tied down to achievements and achievements mean lots of grind; be it mount, map buffs, mastery points, festival backpacks, god knows what else is coming.

Over the years, the developers slowly took away the fun in GW2 and turned them into chores. It's Grind War 2 now. Booo

It's not a ridiculous grind though. It took me less than three weeks of casual farming (mostly doing hearts) to get my Skyscale, and it's much easier now with the "return to..." achievements. You can easily complete at least one of these achievements a day. 

As an example, the meta achievement that rewards 250 Inscribed Shards requires you to complete 7 achievements. 3 of those you can get by just replaying the story instances, another 3 by just gathering a few resources. You can then either do the maps meta event, 5 bounties or all hearts (or 20 events but that takes longer) to get the last achievement.

Done. That's easily doable in 2 hours max.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Maikimaik.1974

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

1 hour ago, Mil.3562 said:

I noticed that too. While many players have the Skyscale despite the ridiculous grind, there are even more without it. Some of my guildlies even find getting the Beetle is tedious. The new team makes it worst. Almost every thing is tied down to achievements and achievements mean lots of grind; be it mount, map buffs, mastery points, festival backpacks, god knows what else is coming.

Over the years, the developers slowly took away the fun in GW2 and turned them into chores. It's Grind War 2 now. Booo

So, 'this grind' started 4 years before Guild Wars 2 launched?  Because that's when 2 of the 3 founders left ArenaNet. 

[Redfeather.6401]

I don't know what to say. GW keeps putting so much dry monotony in front of stuff.

 

Why couldn't we unlock a malnourished skyscale first and then the journey is to make it stronger over time increasing it's flight height and grip strength and all that. Then we'd get to play with it while seeing it grow from our efforts.

 

I look at everything needed to get a skyscale and think 'I could get so much entertainment value by just playing another mmo right now'. It all adds up.

[Redfeather.6401]

I liked how in crackdown you found orbs that increased jump height. Lots of orbs all over. Maybe mounts could get stronger from finding things for them, so it's not a grind to get the mount but instead it's about making the mount less weak. It starts off weak. I am struggling to figure out how to say this since the forums are saying people are confused by my last post.

[Vayne.8563]

3 minutes ago, Redfeather.6401 said:

I liked how in crackdown you found orbs that increased jump height. Lots of orbs all over. Maybe mounts could get stronger from finding things for them, so it's not a grind to get the mount but instead it's about making the mount less weak. It starts off weak. I am struggling to figure out how to say this since the forums are saying people are confused by my last post.

Confusion on this forums is usually used as a downvote. They don't agree with you, they don't have access to a downvote button so they use confused...which can be confusing for sure.

 

I understand what you're saying, but it wouldn't be that good for me.  I don't care about just leveling something to get it stronger. I care about some sort of story.  The idea that we have a sick skyscale and have to collect scales to analyze, and then get the ingredients for the medicine and then get the eggs was a bit over tuned, but I'd still enjoy that more than just endlessly eating energy to get more powerful. That does nothing for me.