Rewards still need a huge overhaul

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

With the reward systems of different types of content currently being looked at, I think we need to consider the variety of rewards offered and how the time commitment of content affects player retention. If Gw2 is to succeed in its steam release, some things need to be normalized to make endgame pve content approachable while still having relevant and desirable rewards.

Fractals:
The main problem with fractals is there are too many dailies while the weekly rewards are insignificant. Currently there are 9 dailies: 3 Recs, 3 T4s, and 3 CMs. While you arent required to do them all, if you are looking to get the most desirable rewards you should be doing all 9. The time commitment is substantial and only worsens the elitist speed clearing mentality. In general the rewards convert to raw gold, with a few exceptions.

Raids:
Being the most challenging pve content with weekly rewards, the time commitment is more so to do with being in a static guild, or learning the encounters and getting the KP to join pugs. The main incentive of raiding is the legendary armor with the other rewards being kind of lackluster.

Dungeons:

Objectively the most outdated instanced content, with very low commitment required and mostly undesirable rewards. They are also the first kind of organized content most new players experience.

Strikes:
I would argue that strikes have the best balance of being approchable, relevant, and not requiring a major commitment. There are 2 dailies, and multiple different weekly rewards.

My main suggestions are to normalize the quality of weekly rewards for all types of instanced pve, reduce the number of fractal dailies and move some rewards to the weekly, and add a new kind of reward to dungeon vendors to make them relevant again. When new players first try Gw2 they see how empty dungeons are, and that doesnt make for a good first impression. Additionally the low difficulty means veterans will often skip parts of the dungeon leaving less experienced players behind. I think adding a daily bonus reward for mentoring a dungeon path would go a long way to create a better new player experience.

For the weekly reward I think It would be interesting to have a pip chest similar to pvp and wvw that progresses with any kind of instanced pve content. The rewards could include a black lion key, ascended gear chest, experience scrolls, boosters, etc. Anet seems to be focusing really hard on the mystic coin/clover rewards which really just translates to a gold in a not so interesting way. I think they are missing the point and overlooking other kinds of rewards people would enjoy getting.
 

 

[Sobx.1758]

38 minutes ago, Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:

When new players first try Gw2 they see how empty dungeons are, and that doesnt make for a good first impression. Additionally the low difficulty means veterans will often skip parts of the dungeon leaving less experienced players behind. I think adding a daily bonus reward for mentoring a dungeon path would go a long way to create a better new player experience.

How does the mentor bonus reward stop veterans from rushing content, except now specifically aiming at having at least one new player in their group solely for the sake of receiving additional bag (if the reward is meaningful in the first place)?

Edited April 9, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Vidit.7108]

7 hours ago, Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:

The main problem with fractals is there are too many dailies while the weekly rewards are insignificant. Currently there are 9 dailies: 3 Recs, 3 T4s, and 3 CMs. While you arent required to do them all, if you are looking to get the most desirable rewards you should be doing all 9. The time commitment is substantial and only worsens the elitist speed clearing mentality. In general the rewards convert to raw gold, with a few exceptions.

All the desirable rewards are not for doing all the fractal dailies. Most PUGs if they are CM skip recs because they don't need the boxes, potions, or relics because they have all the most encryption boxes they can open cheaply for the day, and they got titles and omnipotions. T4 daily groups are not asking to do CMs because most of them can't or don't want to meet the requirements to clear CMs effectively. Some don't have omnipotions and need to refill, most don't have any titles and might only be doing the daily for mystic clovers and some gold so they need relics.

An average T4 +recs  clear time for a middling dps group is about 45 minutes. CM static recruitments that I have seen want the T4 daily and CMs in about 30. It's not a big time commitment to most players.

The biggest appeal to players doing fractals has however always been gold first and materials second. Mystic Clovers are a recent addition and the LFG population before then was always pretty healthy.

If your plan is to pour lighter fluid on elitism problem then switching to a shared weekly system is a great idea. 
Everyone will do their weeklies on monday, any content that doesn't clear quickly will be ignored for content that does. Anyone who's left after monday will be greatly discriminating as already happens with the weekly EoD strikes. People already don't want to do aquatic and siren's reef dailies and now they never will again. You might be a new player and don't remember when the fractal daily was generic and the dungeon was random; groups would reset the dungeon to get a fractal that cleared fast. If it's a fixed group of weeklies, groups will become hyper optimized to clear those as fast as possible and build diversity will shrink. LFG for dungeons will flood with people but many won't take players under level 80 or without elite specs. If there is some sort of pip system people will farm very specific instanced content to game it, and those groups won't just take anyone. We know that because of the fractal bonus events.

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

28 minutes ago, Vidit.7108 said:

An average T4 +recs  clear time for a middling dps group is about 45 minutes. CM static recruitments that I have seen want the T4 daily and CMs in about 30. It's not a big time commitment to most players.

Its unrealistic comparting the average pug to a static. T4s + CMs are easily an hour for the average group. The fact still stands that there are 9 dailies for fractals, there is no good reason to have that many. For example the recs could be turned into weeklies without really having any negative impact to the people who still need to do them.

[Kozumi.5816]

Strikes are the least rewarding content I've ever seen in a MMORPG.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

On 4/9/2022 at 5:04 PM, Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:

Strikes:
I would argue that strikes have the best balance of being approchable, relevant, and not requiring a major commitment. There are 2 dailies, and multiple different weekly rewards.

What.

[OwlMind.7510]

How someone event start doing CM Fractals? Fractals have their own specific with AR and needing to unlock tiers. And literally ALL groups require  100500 UFE to join? Where the kitten starting player is supposed to get UFE? And no - due to the specific there is no a queues of new players to find a group and train and farm ufe. There is barely anyone. For strikes you can find a group willing to train together or accept someone without kp in reasonable time. For CM fractals - well good luck with that.

Edited April 10, 2022 by OwlMind.7510

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

4 hours ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

What.

Fractals require full ascended gear + agony resistance and unlocking of higher tiers just to start getting rewards that make your time spent worthwhile.

Raids have a KP requirements, or progression guild commitments.

Strikes have none of that, so yes they are more approachable, and yes they are relevant content that is actually being developed.

Hope that cleared up your confusion.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

19 minutes ago, Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:

Fractals require full ascended gear + agony resistance and unlocking of higher tiers just to start getting rewards that make your time spent worthwhile.

Raids have a KP requirements, or progression guild commitments.

Strikes have none of that, so yes they are more approachable, and yes they are relevant content that is actually being developed.

Hope that cleared up your confusion.

I honestly thought you meant that Strike rewards are fine and not accessability. My bad.