Strikes aren't really that competitive reward-wise

[Firebeard.1746]

Title, basically. Once you understand the game, crafting ascended gear for fractals is pretty trivial if that's your focus, and that's really the only barrier to them, like it would take a few months, but then you'd be golden. LIke sure you have to grind a bit for the AR, but the gold is way better than strikes once you hit t3.

Raids are a bit strange: If you can reliably clear them fast, strikes are garbage. But even training constantly, it's not really that bad of a way to get ascended gear. It's not my recommended route, but I still think it might be more efficient than doing tons and tons of strikes if your squad can hurt the boss enough for the gaeting crystals/magnetite. You wouldn't get as much coin as strikes, but I still feel this might be more efficient depending on what you're doing on the side

I still do them because I think they're fun every now and then, but I just feel like they won't age well, even if raiding dies. I was hoping the drop rate for ascended chests from the weekly chest would be decent but I've done months worth of them and never seen an ascended gear box or a precursor, so even though they're potential drops, the rates are so low fractals are arguably better.

Completely unrelated but still a liability for strikes is the special mastery abilities that are basically required for breaking the bars fast enough. I'm already starting to see newer players who don't have all of icebrood unable to use them. So they may become unplayable depending on the churn in the player base. Not to mention not everyone likes maxing masteries.

[Cyninja.2954]

Nothing compares to playing open world content if gearing and getting equipment is your metric.

At 30-50 gold per hour from dedicated open world farming, around half if you just half-kitten it, you are looking at around 10-20 hours for the 300 gold it takes to craft an entire ascended armor set. At 1-2 hours per day you are looking at 1-2 weeks of casual play to get geared IF focusing on acquiring gold.

The only content which comes close is fractals and only because the rewards are focused and well communicated (in form of daily fractals). It requires less opimization where to farm or where to go.

Most strikes are far below fractal difficulty, especially the easier ones. Strikes are also not daily gated.

That said, strikes are not that bad reward wise if factoring in their duration:https://fast.farming-community.eu/instances/strikesAlso not factored into that reward is the ability to exchange Ice Shards for Season 4 materials, which in turn can be converted into Volatile Magic, which in turn can be converted into T5/6 crafting materials.

EDIT:Fully agree on the mastery gating especially in relation to rewards. Not sure this approach works as a benefit to this content. A rework might be desirable.

[borgs.6103]

I think that their reward goal was to cater to the most casual of casuals getting ascended gear. And by that I mean people playing for a little every once-in-a-while.

If I'm one of those people, and my goal was berserker or viper gear, I would just play most of the times during the red or green week. Very slowly but surely, I would eventually get one of my characters fully geared-up in ascended gear without doing anything other than logging in, doing dailies and a couple of strike missions every now and then.I just need 1300 red shards and 47g 50s to have a full ascended armor set and 1000 green shards and 30g-60g to have 2 to 4 ascended weapons. Then I can finally be one of the cool kids in all pink gear.

[Firebeard.1746]

@"Cyninja.2954" said:Nothing compares to playing open world content if gearing and getting equipment is your metric.

At 30-50 gold per hour from dedicated open world farming, around half if you just half-kitten it, you are looking at around 10-20 hours for the 300 gold it takes to craft an entire ascended armor set. At 1-2 hours per day you are looking at 1-2 weeks of casual play to get geared IF focusing on acquiring gold.

The only content which comes close is fractals and only because the rewards are focused and well communicated (in form of daily fractals). It requires less opimization where to farm or where to go.

Most strikes are far below fractal difficulty, especially the easier ones. Strikes are also not daily gated.

That said, strikes are not that bad reward wise if factoring in their duration:https://fast.farming-community.eu/instances/strikesAlso not factored into that reward is the ability to exchange Ice Shards for Season 4 materials, which in turn can be converted into Volatile Magic, which in turn can be converted into T5/6 crafting materials.

EDIT:Fully agree on the mastery gating especially in relation to rewards. Not sure this approach works as a benefit to this content. A rework might be desirable.

What exactly gives 30-50 g/h and how? I've heard this, but I don't think my actual numbers are that high and I know how to convert VM/UM into gold. (also I have like 254% base MF).

[Firebeard.1746]

@borgs.6103 said:I think that their reward goal was to cater to the most casual of casuals getting ascended gear. And by that I mean people playing for a little every once-in-a-while.

If I'm one of those people, and my goal was berserker or viper gear, I would just play most of the times during the red or green week. Very slowly but surely, I would eventually get one of my characters fully geared-up in ascended gear without doing anything other than logging in, doing dailies and a couple of strike missions every now and then.I just need 1300 red shards and 47g 50s to have a full ascended armor set and 1000 green shards and 30g-60g to have 2 to 4 ascended weapons. Then I can finally be one of the cool kids in all pink gear.

I'll admit this is probably true. It's low-effort and doesn't require crafting whereas fractals often do because they'll give ascended mats in addition to the boxes and the gold is the huge leg-up, allowing you to quickly craft. I just don't really feel incentivized to do strikes.

[Ooops.8694]

@Cyninja.2954 said:Strikes are also not daily gated.That's basically the whole point when comparing Strikes to Raids or Fractals.

Fine you can clear raids once a week for some rewards... and after those 3-4 hours/week (probably much less if you're not pugging^^) you can't even use food/stuff or you are paying instead of earning something.

[Infusion.7149]

They're fine. For everyone that doesn't have 9+ sets of legendary armor they provide an alternate source of stat select ascended armor/weapons. That is generally more beneficial for trailblazer / minstrel.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Firebeard.1746" said:What exactly gives 30-50 g/h and how?General Open World Benchmarkshttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HOBKHgaPbmc1uMAqupeta824hQzjhiaXBWhPXjORAZs/edit#gid=1982020967

tl;dr

• Non-festival earnings are currently 20-25g for most people (who effectively process everything earned, except spirit shards)
• Mileage varies with the markets and new maps
• Festival earnings can be greater. (the owner of the site usually includes that information during the festival; iirc, for this past halloween, it was 30g/hour)

I'm not aware of any open world content that has reliably yielded >= 40g/hour in years. Then again, I'm not an avid farmer, so I might have missed something.

[Fangoth.4503]

@borgs.6103 said:I think that their reward goal was to cater to the most casual of casuals getting ascended gear. And by that I mean people playing for a little every once-in-a-while.

If I'm one of those people, and my goal was berserker or viper gear, I would just play most of the times during the red or green week. Very slowly but surely, I would eventually get one of my characters fully geared-up in ascended gear without doing anything other than logging in, doing dailies and a couple of strike missions every now and then.I just need 1300 red shards and 47g 50s to have a full ascended armor set and 1000 green shards and 30g-60g to have 2 to 4 ascended weapons. Then I can finally be one of the cool kids in all pink gear.

play during blue week too then swap stats in mystic bin ;)

[Bingus.4236]

The different colour shards is annoying, I don't see the point. It just strings out the process for no real reason. I like the strikes though, more fun than 5fps farming.

[Nazarick.9653]

swap stats in mystic bin ;)

...which you'll have to do anyway if you want 4-stat weapons. (they're not available from strikes)

[AoTsuki.8675]

Regular raids aren't either, once your character has ascended stuff you barely have a reason to go in unless you want a specific skin, title, chair or want to subject yourself to legendary armor pain.

[Astralporing.1957]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

• Non-festival earnings are currently 20-25g for most people (who effectively process everything earned, except spirit shards)For most people that are highly efficient farmers (so, not really for most). It's not about just effectively processing everything earned. Lot of the examples on that spreadsheet are chest or node runs (which require knowing very well the most efficient farming paths, or your efficiency goes down hard). Some of other cases also require being in a highly efficient farming squad - if you are not in one, again, your efficiency goes down a lot. A lot also depends on running very high MF-boons setup, which again, most players don'tI'd say that for most people attempting this that are not experienced farmers you should safely cut down earning rates by half

• Mileage varies with the markets and new maps

• Festival earnings can be greater. (the owner of the site usually includes that information during the festival; iirc, for this past halloween, it was 30g/hour)(again, my observation showed that most players in squads in Labyrinth weren't running any MF buffs - not even guild one - or running only banners that someone put up on that map. Most players also probably didn't have their base MF capped. That heavily affected amount of bags obtained. I doubt most players i saw were getting anywhere close to 10g/h then)

So, yeah, for the relatively small group of experienced farmers you can go up to like 25g/h now, but most players are not really capable of that. I'd say that what should be expected of non-farmers trying to farm some gold is rates around 10-15g/h at best.

I also am not aware of anything that currently could go up to 50g/hour. The only case of this kind of farming rate i ever heard of was the Deadeye farm during LS1 (and it was also not something everyone could do, and the rate was not only heavily dependant on you being able to practically oneshot him, but also on you having an unrestricted and exclusive access to a gauntlet cage, so it was mostly theoretical anyway).

[Linken.6345]

Well if we compare strikes to the new dragon response missions we should nerf them down 300-400%

[Fangoth.4503]

@Firebeard.1746 said:

I still do them because I think they're fun every now and then, but I just feel like they won't age well, even if raiding dies. I was hoping the drop rate for ascended chests from the weekly chest would be decent but I've done months worth of them and never seen an ascended gear box or a precursor, so even though they're potential drops, the rates are so low fractals are arguably better.

4-5 raw gold + materials + eternal ice + here and there item worth 40gold for 15-20min of playing is pretty descent reward. and you even get currecy to trade for ascended gear.

[Firebeard.1746]

@Fangoth.4503 said:

@Firebeard.1746 said:

I still do them because I think they're fun every now and then, but I just feel like they won't age well, even if raiding dies. I was hoping the drop rate for ascended chests from the weekly chest would be decent but I've done months worth of them and never seen an ascended gear box or a precursor, so even though they're potential drops, the rates are so low fractals are arguably better.

4-5 raw gold + materials + eternal ice + here and there item worth 40gold for 15-20min of playing is pretty descent reward. and you even get currecy to trade for ascended gear.

Have you ever done a T3+ fractal?

[Yasai.3549]

Strikes are kinda the only way for casuals to grind out a weekly and get Ascended set.If yu are more interested in doing things in a "Daily, Weekly" fashion, Fractals and Strikes.

It's to cater to people who are definitely not gonna go on meta runs, World boss trains, WvW or PvP, or pick up crafting.

[Fangoth.4503]

@Firebeard.1746 said:

@Fangoth.4503 said:

@Firebeard.1746 said:

I still do them because I think they're fun every now and then, but I just feel like they won't age well, even if raiding dies. I was hoping the drop rate for ascended chests from the weekly chest would be decent but I've done months worth of them and never seen an ascended gear box or a precursor, so even though they're potential drops, the rates are so low fractals are arguably better.

4-5 raw gold + materials + eternal ice + here and there item worth 40gold for 15-20min of playing is pretty descent reward. and you even get currecy to trade for ascended gear.

Have you ever done a T3+ fractal?

yeah T3 is a nightmare you most likely will loose your soul there,T4 are fine ish but rather go on a CM+T4 which i refuse to do regularly until dev fix their mistakes.anyhow cm + t4 takes 1h ish for 15-20gold but when you've done that you still have more than enough time to go 15-20min in strike and get descent coins if not getting even more that fract+t4

[uberkingkong.8041]

Reward wise?

Strikes you go straight to boss, and he dies in seconds.

Fractals, clear 10 mins of trash and then do boss.Raids. is in middle of strikes and fractals. Just do raids, they aint hard.

Most games tbh,raids are usually hours of trash clearing then boss.This game though, they put a lot of trash in casual dungeons like fractals, seems more than raids imo.Should be the other way around, raids full of trash clearing, not casual fractals.

But rewards in strikes?You aint doing much, its just killing boss, they give rewards to make it not garbage/waste of time practice for raids. Be thankful you getting any rewards at all.

[Bingus.4236]

I've been using Strikes to get ascended armour. For the actual time I spend playing, seems very time efficient. I am not really a farmer, I don't enjoy sorting through loot that much. With strikes, I can just pay the shards in and get what I want. the three easy strikes and forging steel once a day is about 40 minutes or there about and doing that once a day for a week can get around enough to get one of the smaller 150 shard armour pieces.

[Firebeard.1746]

@Bingus.4236 said:I've been using Strikes to get ascended armour. For the actual time I spend playing, seems very time efficient. I am not really a farmer, I don't enjoy sorting through loot that much. With strikes, I can just pay the shards in and get what I want. the three easy strikes and forging steel once a day is about 40 minutes or there about and doing that once a day for a week can get around enough to get one of the smaller 150 shard armour pieces.

I still think fractals beats it when you start doing the higher tiers. The higher level chests can give ascended mats (or mystic coins) and you get boat loads of raw gold, but okay cool! Good for you! It is easy to get into.

[Astralporing.1957]

@Bingus.4236 said:I've been using Strikes to get ascended armour. For the actual time I spend playing, seems very time efficient.It's still worse than just farming gold directly and crafting the item, though.

[Infusion.7149]

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@"Bingus.4236" said:I've been using Strikes to get ascended armour. For the actual time I spend playing, seems very time efficient.It's still worse than just farming gold directly and crafting the item, though.

Depends on the stat and whether you have fulgurite for the 4 stat items and whether you are just doing daily strikes and taking your time or grinding Voice+Claw. Trailblazer is still cheaper from strikes I believe for any armor pieces other than chest/leg as the insignia is around 20g alone even if you stat swap. When the pearls for minstrel armor were a few gold each it was true for minstrel armor as well.This doesn't even include stats that are notoriously timegated (Diviner's aka Steelstar's) or where the recipes cost more than the crafting cost at times (Harrier's aka Zehtuka's) such that you would need to stat swap from a cheap non ectoplasm stat such as Rabid , Magi, Soldier's or Dire.

(Prices with daily cooldowns)

Chestpiece

Trailblazer chestpiece (light armor) = 70-77gTrailblazer chestpiece (medium armor) = 67-75gMinstrel's chestpiece (medium armor) = 56-59gBerserker's chestpiece (medium armor) = 55-58gHarrier chestpiece (medium armor) = 54-57gDiviner chestpiece (medium armor) = 53-57gMinstrel's chestpiece (light armor) = 52-57gBerserker's chestpiece (light armor) = 51-55gMinstrel's chestpiece (heavy armor) = 47-51gHarrier or Diviner chestpiece (heavy armor) = 45-49g

Strikes = 15 gold + 400 prophet shards for chest armorwith a valuation of Stabilized Prophet Crystal = 20 prophet shards at around 2 gold profit that means it is a bit cheaper for trailblazer chest armor (total ~55g)

Legpiece

Trailblazer legpiece (medium armor) = 65-72gTrailblazer legpiece (light armor) = 61-69gBerserker's legpiece (medium armor) = 50-52gHarrier legpiece (medium armor) = 49-52gDiviner legpiece (medium armor) = 48-51gBerserker's legpiece (light armor) = 46-50g , similar for Minstrel'sMinstrel's legpiece (heavy armor) = 44-47gBerserker's legpiece (heavy armor) = 42-46gHarrier or Diviner legpiece (heavy armor) = 42-45g

Strikes = 10 gold + 275 prophet shards for leg armorwith a valuation of Stabilized Prophet Crystal = 20 prophet shards at around 2 gold profit that means it is a bit cheaper for trailblazer leg armor (total ~38g)

Headgear

Trailblazer headgear (medium armor) = 56-63gTrailblazer headgear (light armor) = 56-63gTrailblazer headgear (heavy armor) = 55-62gMinstrel's headgear (medium / light armor) = 42-45gBerserker's headgear (medium / light armor) = 41-44gMinstrel's headgear (heavy armor) = 40-43gBerserker's headgear (heavy armor) = 39-42gDiviner headgear (medium armor) = 39-42gDiviner headgear (heavy armor) = 38-41g

Strikes = 7.5 gold + 175 prophet shards for headgearwith a valuation of Stabilized Prophet Crystal = 20 prophet shards at around 2 gold profit that means trailblazer headgear is substantially cheaper by about two times (total ~25g)

Boots / Gloves / Shoulders

Trailblazer boots (medium armor)= 62-69gTrailblazer boots (light armor) = 60-67gTrailblazer boots (heavy armor) = 54-60gMinstrel's boots (medium armor) = 47-50gBerserker's boots (medium armor) = 47-49gMinstrel's boots (light armor) = 46-49gHarrier boots (medium armor) = 46-48gDiviner boots (medium armor) = 45-48gBerserker's boots (light armor) = 45-48gMinstrel's boots (heavy armor) = 39-42gBerserker's boots (heavy armor) = 38-41gDiviner boots (heavy armor) = 37-40g

Trailblazer gloves (medium armor) = 57-64gTrailblazer gloves (light armor) = 56-63gTrailblazer gloves (heavy armor) = 54-61gMinstrel's gloves (medium armor) = 43-46gBerserker's gloves (medium armor) = 42-44gBerserker's gloves (light armor) = 41-44gHarrier gloves (medium armor) = 41-44gDiviner gloves (medium armor) = 40-43gDiviner gloves (heavy armor) = 37-40g

Strikes = 5 gold + 150 prophet shards for boots/gloves/shoulderswith a valuation of Stabilized Prophet Crystal = 20 prophet shards at around 2 gold profit that means trailblazer pieces are substantially cheaper by about two to three times (total ~20g)

Strike "profit"

https://fast.farming-community.eu/instances/strikesRepeatable gold/hour per fast farming is supposedly 27g with a good group on Voice+Claw regardless of if you opt for the armor

TL;DR

The best "bang for buck" is to get boots , gloves, and headgear boxes.