Skirmish Claim tickets

[EyzKold.8247]

Obtaining skirmish tickets is just taking way too long.  I like wvw a lot but it lacks in making Gold and Skirmish Claim Tickets.  Currently,  the tickets are set at 365 per week.  To make the game mode more enticing to newer players as well as obtaining exotic, ascended, and leg armor, etc, the ticket cap should be raised to 500 per week.  That in itself would help a lot.   Also, we need to be able to sell unwanted ascended items...maybe back to a WVW vendor for tickets or gold.  Thoughts?  Sorry for the rant. 😟

[Ashen.2907]

Rewards in WvW could use some improvement. Skirmish ticket acquisition could be a solid part of that.

[EyzKold.8247]

Selling tickets would also be a great idea

[Dawdler.8521]

Skirmish tickets are plenty and you'll drown in them after a while because once you start getting legendary gear... you cant sell them, the skirmish vendor become pointless, there's nothing you can use them for. Just stack em up.

Memories of battle on the other hand... 

[Player.2475]

I don't think it's in the spirit of the game to get that type of reward that fast.

First of all, I'd like to point out a very important difference.
Compare WvW skirmish claim ticket rewards to  PvE legendaries. The 22 weeks of  "Play 10-17 hours of the gamemode however you want" time gate makes the kitten that is 30-40 weeks of consecutive weekly raids raids and those overly specific achievements and collections look like pure torture. Don't even mention 1.5 years of maxing out PvP leagues with more time invested in them every week than you can possibly sleep.

Secondly:
In Guild Wars 2, you aren't supposed to go and grind for something and hyper focus on that, do nothing else but that, and burn yourself out because you invested 100 hours into just one activity to get one thing. You are supposed to do a variety of different content, maybe a couple hours at a time, because you enjoy it and then let its rewards collect over time. 

Hell, I play so much WvW, and I enjoy the gamemode so much, I get mad that I get my weekly limit of skirmish tickets within just 2 days of playing WvW, not because I want to get more tickets, but because playing WvW just feels a lot less rewarding once the skirmish chests are gone! But then I go play PvE, world bosses, metas, dungeons, strikes, and by the time I have enough tickets to make a legendary armor piece, I have all the resources and I'm 200 gold richer than I was before I started making it.

If you have the money to spare, just look at what other legendaries or collections you can complete in the same time. Chances are they are equally time gated. 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Player.2475

[PinkTacoLover.7603]

I'm crafting the whole legg armor with the legit wvw way (no craft grandmaster thing) and after more than a year:

> 8431 tickets

 

PS

I'm still missing one piece of the armor, i also crafted warbringer and twlight

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

There are two issues here:

The acquisition rate of Skirmish Tickets is way too low.

At the same time there are not enough tangible uses for them resulting in longtime WvW only players have a glut of Skirmish Tickets with no use for them.

Skirmish Tickets either need another source of acquisition, or a higher weekly cap and faster rate gain.

Skirmish Tickets also need a tangible sink that isn't a collection of one time skins.

This is why I suggested in the past that a Daily/Weekly vendor should exist in WvW whose purpose is to exchange Memories of Battle for Skirmish Tickets and vice Versa.

I think the same vendor should offer a similar GoB <-> Skirmish Ticket exchange, an Emblem <-> Skirmish Ticket exchange, as well as one way exchanges for Mystic Coins and Mystic Clovers.

[EyzKold.8247]

Yeah an exchange vendor would be sweet😁

[LSD.4673]

5 weeks of on-and-off raiding: 2 ascended sets and enough to turn 3 pieces legendary.

 

Many years of on-and-off (always at least Wood) WvW: enough for 5 ascended, and 1 of them turned legendary.

 

Hilarious.

[Twilight Tempest.7584]

Somewhere in the past year (?) Anet acknowledged the WvW-compared-to-other-modes rewards disparity and the glacial rate of Skirmish Ticket gain, and suggested they want to improve these as part of their efforts towards making WvW a "cornerstone" game mode.  While it would seem relatively simple to implement, I suppose it's paced with World Restructuring development.

[Leger.3724]

The logic of the skirmish tickets doesn't make much sense. It's incredibly punishing all around. Want to grind? Weekly cap. Want to play it slow? Rewards are stacked at the back-end of the progression so you need to grind.

 

They should flatten the rewards, remove the cap and then reevaluate to see if a new cap is needed or if diminishing returns is needed (so when you complete diamond and start repeating... you get fewer and fewer tickets each time). 

 

And outside of tickets generally speaking loot kind of sucks. What do I need all these extra legendary spikes, Emblems of the Avenger and Conqueror for? You can't even use the Avenger ones right? Players just get Conflux now. There's no intermediate step.

 

Think about many of the reward track completion chests. The biggest prizes in them are usually a few obsidian shards and a few mystic clovers.

 

There needs to be some thinking around how players are rewarded for milestones.

[Cyninja.2954]

2 hours ago, Leger.3724 said:

The logic of the skirmish tickets doesn't make much sense. It's incredibly punishing all around. Want to grind? Weekly cap. Want to play it slow? Rewards are stacked at the back-end of the progression so you need to grind.

Let's do some math to see just HOW back-stacked tickets are given this is a common complaint:

 

At 365 tickets per week and 1,450 pips needed, that amounts to 0.25 tickets per pip overall. Let's compare the now versus "equalized" results:

Wood - 17 versus 25 (100x0.25) with 8 tickets being rewarded at the end. 25 pips per chest section.

Bronze - 25 versus 30 (120x0.25) with 10 tickets being rewarded at the end. 30 pips per chest section.

Silver - 40 versus 43.75 (175x0.25) with 12 tickets being rewarded at the end. 35 pips per section.

Gold - 50 versus 50 (200x0.25) with 14 tickets being rewarded at the end. 40 pips per section.

Platinum - 60 versus 56.25 (225x0.25) with 16 tickets being rewarded at the end. 45 pips per section.

Mithril - 83 versus 75 (300x0.25) with 18 tickets being rewarded at the end. 50 pips per section.

Diamond - 90 versus 82.5 (330x0.25) with 20 tickets being rewarded at the end. 55 pips per section.

 

When actually comparing current ticket distribution to an actual equalized distribution we can see that a total of 17 (rounded, it's actually 16.75) tickets are missing from the lower ranks. While I am sure that those 17 tickets WILL make a huge difference to some players, if you actually compare those to the final chest rewards AND the fact that pips per section increase, meaning missing any section due to to many pips required, it's not that bad of a deal.

 

Do you know WHY people are so up and arms about the "ticket distribution" (most obviously not having done any math on this themselves or better yet: they checked the wiki, saw a very disproportionate graph which they in essence misunderstood what it was showing)? Most don't actually factor in for the far longer time it takes to complete the later ranks. Those 17 tickets missing are in the first 305 pips of the week which is a fraction of the total amount of pips needed. This leads to players believing they are missing out on far more tickets than they actually are.

 

Now, what if we actually equalized both tickets per pip and pips per chest? This would result in 1,450/7 = 207 pips per chest. Let's go with 5 segments per chest (the average between 4 in Wood and 6 in Diamond), the distribution wood look as follows:

 

Wood/Diamond - 51.75 tickets, 41.4 pips per chest section. 10.35 tickets per chest section.

 

You end up with far longer chest sections which if missed, which is far more likely given they now take significantly longer to complete for players with low play time, almost make up for the "missing" 17 tickets (and in fact would completely make up for them if the ticket rewards would be back-ended to the final chest section). Fun side fact looking at the numbers: that's almost exactly where Gold is at right now with 40 pips per section.

 

Could the ticket difference for the first 3 ranks get adjusted? Sure. Would it make a huge difference? No.

2 hours ago, Leger.3724 said:

They should flatten the rewards, remove the cap and then reevaluate to see if a new cap is needed or if diminishing returns is needed (so when you complete diamond and start repeating... you get fewer and fewer tickets each time). 

I did the math up top. If the rewards are flattened, there is no real benefit unless you keep the dis-proportionate difference in pips required per chest type. If you actually equalize the pips per chest as well in order to keep the reward/effort even, you get a situation where you lose out on more tickets than were gained for equalizing (with a back ended system as is now).

2 hours ago, Leger.3724 said:

And outside of tickets generally speaking loot kind of sucks. What do I need all these extra legendary spikes, Emblems of the Avenger and Conqueror for? You can't even use the Avenger ones right? Players just get Conflux now. There's no intermediate step.

Loot could see some improvements, ideally not on the passive end but rather the active one.

If this should relate to tickets as well, that depends on how happy the developers are with the time it takes to acquire "legendary" gear in WvW. A rework here could see more rewards for a more active game style while discouraging "pip farming". 

2 hours ago, Leger.3724 said:

 

Think about many of the reward track completion chests. The biggest prizes in them are usually a few obsidian shards and a few mystic clovers.

 

There needs to be some thinking around how players are rewarded for milestones.

 

So on the one hand milestones should get rewarded, on the other rewards should get normalized? I get what you are arguing for, but you are literally disagreeing with yourself here because you are favoring 2 opposite approaches depending on the reward you are looking at (which I assume is because you believe that this would benefit you or others, when in fact it wouldn't).

 

TL;DR:

People need to stop with the "tickets are back-ended" or at least do the math themselves. When actually comparing current ticket distribution to an actual equalized distribution we can see that a total of 17 (rounded, it's actually 16.75) tickets are missing from the lower ranks. Which while not nothing is nearly insignificant in the total amount of tickets acquirable.

The important part here: you're not getting penalized for completing the lower ranks, it's a trade-off between time to complete a chest subsection until you get tickets versus tickets gained and the "difference" is equalized by the time you hit Gold at which point subsection completion has ramped up significantly (40 pips per section versus 25/30/35).

Edited September 1, 2022 by Cyninja.2954

[Jitters.9401]

16 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Skirmish tickets are plenty and you'll drown in them after a while

After an agomozing very long while.

 

I have just my 6 piece legendary medium set but I didn't do an exact count of tickets

 

 

GuildJen says it takes 7,880 per set. At 365 tickets a week 7,880 tickets and those tickets will take 22 weeks to obtain if you max it out. Not everyone does.

 

So 22 weeks by light/medium/heavy sets equals 66 weeks. So it takes more than a year for all 3 sets of armor.

 

Then weapons.  Those cost tickets as do infusions. Different builds also have different infusions..  

 

The reality of it, is for a long while you will always be in need of skirmish tickets so maybe do not make it sound so simple and easy to reach goal.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

YES, 100% agree with you, OP. I got 2 legendary armor pieces from WvW, so had to get tons of Skirmish Claim Tickets,  and not gonna lie, I feel a little burnt out lol. I like to play casually and on top of that I have little time to play. I wanna get the other 4 armor pieces left, but as it is right now it feels like I'd have to spend my life in WvW, and as much as I like WvW I just don't have the time or the energy for that.  

[Gorani.7205]

2 hours ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

TL;DR:

 

People need to stop with the "tickets are back-ended" or at least do the math themselves.

I always like your math breakdown on the topic, but you never take possible, available, game time into your consideration. What you say is correct only for covering the complete track of chests to get all 365 tickets.

 

First hour when starting, assuming you get +10 pips per tick for illustration, (after e.g. reset on Friday night); you 11 chances to "tick" (because the first tick does not count):

You have earned 110 ticks which has completed the "Wood"-chest for a total of 17 tickets.

Last hour before finishing the whole track of chests: you earn 110 ticks again and get the last normal Diamond chest with 14 tickets (at the 55 pip mark) and another 20 tickets from the final Diamond chest (at 110 pips). That's a total 34 tickets and twice as many as you get from you first hour of WvW gameplay.

 

And to finish Diamond & 365 tickets with a +10 pip/tick you will need a bit over 12 hours of of WvW game time during the week. You can think that this is a fair time to invest for what I want to get (a full Legendary armour set), but I think this is a "part time" job for a game and way too much.

[Cyninja.2954]

1 hour ago, Gorani.7205 said:

I always like your math breakdown on the topic, but you never take possible, available, game time into your consideration. What you say is correct only for covering the complete track of chests to get all 365 tickets.

 

First hour when starting, assuming you get +10 pips per tick for illustration, (after e.g. reset on Friday night); you 11 chances to "tick" (because the first tick does not count):

You have earned 110 ticks which has completed the "Wood"-chest for a total of 17 tickets.

Last hour before finishing the whole track of chests: you earn 110 ticks again and get the last normal Diamond chest with 14 tickets (at the 55 pip mark) and another 20 tickets from the final Diamond chest (at 110 pips). That's a total 34 tickets and twice as many as you get from you first hour of WvW gameplay.

 

And to finish Diamond & 365 tickets with a +10 pip/tick you will need a bit over 12 hours of of WvW game time during the week. You can think that this is a fair time to invest for what I want to get (a full Legendary armour set), but I think this is a "part time" job for a game and way too much.

Excellent comparison and it shows nicely WHY shorter pip requirements per chest segment are beneficial and it makes sense to not normalize everything.

Let me adjust your math just a little:

In your example, which I understand where you are coming from, basically taking THE highest payout per pip you can comparing it to the lowest, you went with 110 pips just enough to complete 2 ranks of Diamond but getting no payout for 10 pips in your weaker reward track. In essence those 10 pips "should" have gained another 2 pips in Bronze, which they didn't because that section was not completed.

 

So let's look at some other pip numbers under strained time periods:

100 pips, exactly what is needed to complete Wood and a reasonable assumption for someone who has to time manage extensively given he will try to get the final rewards. This nets you, as before, 17 tickets from completing the full Wood chest. It also nets you "only" 14 tickets from Diamond because that 2nd track was never completed.

 

Let's look at 50 pips: 6 tickets from Wood, 0 from Diamond.

 

Let's look at 395 pips (the sum of Wood, Bronze and Silver, the 3 tracks which have a lower ticket payout than Gold which is the highest per pip). 82 tickets from those 3 chests versus 113 from completing Diamond and 1 track of Mithril. Missing anything more than 10 pips changes this to 70 tickets for the former (missing the final chest of Silver) versus 93 tickets (missing the final Chest of Diamond). The amount of tickets lost for not reaching a milestone is substantially higher at higher ranks.

 

Let's look at 725 pips (the exact half way point): 165 tickets from Wood, Bronze, Silver, Gold and 3 tracks of Platinum versus 195 tickets from Diamond, Mithril and 2 tracks of Platinum.

 

Yes, the last hours do yield the highest return but they also require THE highest commitment. Missing out on even 1 track basically puts you behind as much as an entire Wood Chest worth of tickets at far less pip investment.

The point I was making is: normalizing is not THAT big a solution or benefit. Now I am not opposed to normalized ticket/pip acquisition, I doubt many players would care who complete Diamond and certainly 17 tickets more for someone who can only complete Silver (82 tickets total gained by then) is substantial. It still would not change the time commitments required and as such I think players should focus on other aspects.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Cyninja.2954

[Dawdler.8521]

5 hours ago, Jitters.9401 said:

After an agomozing very long while.

 

I have just my 6 piece legendary medium set but I didn't do an exact count of tickets

 

 

GuildJen says it takes 7,880 per set. At 365 tickets a week 7,880 tickets and those tickets will take 22 weeks to obtain if you max it out. Not everyone does.

 

So 22 weeks by light/medium/heavy sets equals 66 weeks. So it takes more than a year for all 3 sets of armor.

 

Then weapons.  Those cost tickets as do infusions. Different builds also have different infusions..  

 

The reality of it, is for a long while you will always be in need of skirmish tickets so maybe do not make it sound so simple and easy to reach goal.

What are you rushing towards? 

The entire point of WvW as an endgame mode is that it's infinite. You cant "finish" it. Every new enemy encounter is unique - even when you repeat fight someone. 

Do you have like... a deadline? 

Because otherwise ascended work perfectly fine until you make your legendary sets. In fact it's kind of made so that you get them first.
 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Dawdler.8521

[Zok.4956]

3 hours ago, Gorani.7205 said:

And to finish Diamond & 365 tickets with a +10 pip/tick you will need a bit over 12 hours of of WvW game time during the week. You can think that this is a fair time to invest for what I want to get (a full Legendary armour set), but I think this is a "part time" job for a game and way too much.

You don't have to play WvW 12 hours a week just for the tickets. It's not a job. Play WvW as long as you want and as long as you are having fun. The tickets and the WvW legendary are a nice extra for regular WvW players and instead of some skill and time (like the PvE/raid legendary) the WvW legy requires no skill but more time commitment.

 

[Zok.4956]

6 hours ago, Jitters.9401 said:

So 22 weeks by light/medium/heavy sets equals 66 weeks. So it takes more than a year for all 3 sets of armor.

So, only after a little more than one year of playing your favourite game mode you could have 3 sets of legendary armor. Not so bad, I guess.

 

6 hours ago, Jitters.9401 said:

The reality of it, is for a long while you will always be in need of skirmish tickets so maybe do not make it sound so simple and easy to reach goal.

It actually is easy. It just takes some time.

And: No, you are not in need for skirmish tickets for a long time just because you want to play WvW with best in slot stats. Ascended gear works very good in WvW, too. When I first looked into how to make WvW legy armor I already had enough tickets for more than one set. I never was "in need" of skirmish tickets when I just wanted to play WvW.

 

[Ronin.4501]

On 8/31/2022 at 1:35 PM, Dawdler.8521 said:

Skirmish tickets are plenty and you'll drown in them after a while because once you start getting legendary gear... you cant sell them, the skirmish vendor become pointless, there's nothing you can use them for. Just stack em up.

Memories of battle on the other hand... 

My 35k Skirmish tickets and 150 Memories of Battle agree with this statement.  Gotta sell the Memories of Battle because it's pretty much the ONLY way to make any gold in WvW.  Even if Anet doesn't want us selling our Skirmish tickets to other players (which is understandable), it'd be nice if they could at least be sold to a vendor similar to the way Legendary spikes can be vendored.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Ronin.4501

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Im going to just put this here...
 

 

[DanAlcedo.3281]

I would gift my 50k tickets to you if I could. 

[Ashen.2907]

I think it would be interesting to flip skirmish ticket rewards around so that you get the higher number of tickets per tier at the beginning and the lower number per tier at the end (essentially swap wood and diamond skirmish ticket rewards) but then continue ticket rewards on repeat of diamond (at the new lower rate). This would increase rewards for the most dedicated players who invest the time to repeat diamond tier while also increasing rewards for those currently unable to spend that much time in WvW.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Ashen.2907

[MedievalThings.5417]

I'd  like to exchange tickets for gold.  Cause I have plenty of one and none of the other.

[Kori Jenkins.9017]

15 hours ago, Twilight Tempest.7584 said:

Somewhere in the past year (?) Anet acknowledged the WvW-compared-to-other-modes rewards disparity and the glacial rate of Skirmish Ticket gain, and suggested they want to improve these as part of their efforts towards making WvW a "cornerstone" game mode.  While it would seem relatively simple to implement, I suppose it's paced with World Restructuring development.

it was fairly recent yeah, they said "more rewards" is something they want, but decided to prioritize alliances.

 

My issue with that is, surely increasing the rewards in WvW is not hard at all. Why wait until after Alliances are finished to improve that part of the game mode? Just do it now and stop wasting our time.