Do you have to PVP to get Legendary Armour/Weapons?

[Astral Storm.7590]

So I've been looking into Legendary Armour / Weapons and the long/expensive processes to getting them.  It seems to me that for almost all of them you have to engage in WvW to acquire Gifts of Battle.

I do not and will not PVP in ANY game because its against my religion.  I stopped playing Destiny 2 because some of the Exotic Weapons I wanted required participation in PvP.  Likewise, although I loved Black Desert while levelling characters, I ended up not playing them after level 50 because you are forced into PVP even in the open world.

I'm fed up of Game Developers forcing PvP down people's throats if they want to get good gear.  Does that mean I'm stuck with grinding Ascended Gear on all my chars in GW2 because that's the best I'll be able to get without engaging in PvP?

Edited February 18, 2023 by Astral Storm.7590

[vares.8457]

8 minutes ago, Astral Storm.7590 said:

I do not and will not PVP in ANY game because its against my religion. 

What religion prohibits PvP in video games? 
You can get legendary armor without having to do PvP or WvW. For the weapons you need the Gift of Battle. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by vares.8457

[Danikat.8537]

Is it a problem if other people attack (and likely kill) you, or only if you fight back?

If you're ok with the chance of being attacked then it's possible to get the Gift of Battle by doing WvW dailies which don't require fighting other players, like Mists Guard Killer, Master of Monuments, Veteran Creature Slayer or even Camp Capturer (if the camp is undefended, which they often are) then using the potions from the daily achievement rewards to complete the reward track. It's slower, but it works and you don't have to fight any real people. It is possible you'll be attacked by other players because you have to be in WvW maps to do them, but you can just let them kill you then go out and try again.

As for why they do it I think it's probably because since legendary equipment is the ultimate reward in this game they want it to require participation in all aspects of the game, which means both PvE and PvP.

[Astral Storm.7590]

Okay thanks for your advice.  I might try to make a Healer Build on one of my chars and see if I can do WvW that way,

[DeanBB.4268]

You can also purchase legendary weapons on the trading post.

[Archenblade.3405]

Okay - you can WvW as a pacifist!

You can get away with just running around, and capturing ruins, if someone attacks, they usually care more about the ruin than you. Avoid zergs.

[Danikat.8537]

3 hours ago, Astral Storm.7590 said:

Okay thanks for your advice.  I might try to make a Healer Build on one of my chars and see if I can do WvW that way,

If you want to do WvW dailies a support build isn't a good idea, because you'll mainly be solo (unless you have a friend you always play with) and you will need to fight NPCs for most of them so it's best to focus on damage.

On the other hand if you're ok with supporting and healing players who are fighting other players you could get it much more quickly by playing WvW in a squad. You won't get credit for kills if you don't damage them, but you can claim objectives and there will be times when the group is only fighting NPCs.

[Gibson.4036]

The desert map is the easiest to skulk around and avoid other players to flip PVE camps and shrines, and defeat guards.

Youll still occasionally get ganked, but you can generally go a long time without seeing enemy players if you pay attention.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[Ashen.2907]

15 hours ago, Astral Storm.7590 said:

Does that mean I'm stuck with grinding Ascended Gear on all my chars in GW2 because that's the best I'll be able to get without engaging in PvP?

Legendary gear is no better, in terms of stats, than ascended.

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Legendary gear is no better, in terms of stats, than ascended.

But if you have a lot of characters (or want lots of builds) the legendary armoury does make it easier to kit them all out.

I made my legendary weapons purely for the skins, but I probably won't ever make another ascended shortbow, staff or greatsword (unless I want the skin) because I can just use the legendary ones. (I would make more daggers, because I often use two at once.) I made Ad Infinitum specifically so I wouldn't have to keep other backpacks (now I only have 2 spares in the bank).

[Jianyu.7065]

On 2/18/2023 at 2:45 PM, DeanBB.4268 said:

You can also purchase legendary weapons on the trading post.

 

Considering the prices though, you might as well just do the work since most players don't have that much gold to throw away in one lump sum.

[Jianyu.7065]

The dedication part of acquiring a legendary item makes sense. Period. 

 

Personally, however, I have to agree that long time players who avoid pvp and raids need a solution to ascended gear that is similar to legendary items in the sense that they can be stat changed without too much trouble - and then used across multiple characters without having to transfer it between them. We know the main benefit to legendary is QoL and it would be nice to go through some kind of challenge in pve/ow to upgrade an ascended to at least one of QoL features - preferably stat changing. The process to stat change an ascended piece isn't always daunting or expensive but some stats require things like charged crystals that you can only aquire 1 per day - so it would take two days to stat change just one ascended item unless you have a surplus of charged crystal which I'm thinking isn't very common. I'd take this process somehow made slightly easier over there being a solution for pve only to aquire legendary items easier. 

 

It's a big pain because the pve only players are caught between being forced to participate in content that isn't enjoyable or doesn't appeal them in order to aquire the QoL legendary items or having to go through the costly/time consuming process of switching around, stat changing, or making multiple sets of ascended gear. 

 

So a part of this discussion isn't really about singling out a group of players based on their preference of how they play the game. It's merely finding a solution. Think about it this way, a pvp only player has access to all of the items and more that a OW player has. It's as if this aspect of the game is intentionally made more difficult for no reason basically telling an OW player they aren't good enough just because they don't prefer to engage in competitive content. 

 

 

[Linken.6345]

 

48 minutes ago, Jianyu.7065 said:

The dedication part of acquiring a legendary item makes sense. Period. 

 

Personally, however, I have to agree that long time players who avoid pvp and raids need a solution to ascended gear that is similar to legendary items in the sense that they can be stat changed without too much trouble - and then used across multiple characters without having to transfer it between them. We know the main benefit to legendary is QoL and it would be nice to go through some kind of challenge in pve/ow to upgrade an ascended to at least one of QoL features - preferably stat changing. The process to stat change an ascended piece isn't always daunting or expensive but some stats require things like charged crystals that you can only aquire 1 per day - so it would take two days to stat change just one ascended item unless you have a surplus of charged crystal which I'm thinking isn't very common. I'd take this process somehow made slightly easier over there being a solution for pve only to aquire legendary items easier. 

 

It's a big pain because the pve only players are caught between being forced to participate in content that isn't enjoyable or doesn't appeal them in order to aquire the QoL legendary items or having to go through the costly/time consuming process of switching around, stat changing, or making multiple sets of ascended gear. 

 

So a part of this discussion isn't really about singling out a group of players based on their preference of how they play the game. It's merely finding a solution. Think about it this way, a pvp only player has access to all of the items and more that a OW player has. It's as if this aspect of the game is intentionally made more difficult for no reason basically telling an OW player they aren't good enough just because they don't prefer to engage in competitive content. 

 

 

Well do you know that strikes are a thing? 

The icebrood saga ones is your easy way to get more ascended armors in pve.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crystallographer_Smoxxi

Edited February 25, 2023 by Linken.6345

[Jianyu.7065]

15 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

 

Well do you know that strikes are a thing? 

The icebrood saga ones is your easy way to get more ascended armors in pve.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crystallographer_Smoxxi

 

👍

[Shuzuru.3651]

7 hours ago, Jianyu.7065 said:

So a part of this discussion isn't really about singling out a group of players based on their preference of how they play the game. It's merely finding a solution. Think about it this way, a pvp only player has access to all of the items and more that a OW player has. It's as if this aspect of the game is intentionally made more difficult for no reason basically telling an OW player they aren't good enough just because they don't prefer to engage in competitive content

False, actually, way more things are inaccessible to PvP players. 

Gift of exploration, Gift of desert mastery/maguma, Aurora and Vision entirely, Legendary amulet or rings depending on if they do only WvW or Spvp. 

Those are all actually heavy investment in PvE. 

 

On the other hand, PvE players simply have to do 3h30/4h of WvW once in a while (and not even for all the legendary), and you can do it without ever encountering any player, actually, so it can be like PvE, actually. 

 

I'm a PvE player, I'm not a fan of WvW, but honestly, we really have it easy, on this part. 

[Jianyu.7065]

1 hour ago, Shuzuru.3651 said:

False, actually, way more things are inaccessible to PvP players. 

Gift of exploration, Gift of desert mastery/maguma, Aurora and Vision entirely, Legendary amulet or rings depending on if they do only WvW or Spvp. 

Those are all actually heavy investment in PvE. 

 

On the other hand, PvE players simply have to do 3h30/4h of WvW once in a while (and not even for all the legendary), and you can do it without ever encountering any player, actually, so it can be like PvE, actually. 

 

I'm a PvE player, I'm not a fan of WvW, but honestly, we really have it easy, on this part. 

 

Okay

[Fodder.3529]

On 2/25/2023 at 8:35 PM, Shuzuru.3651 said:

False, actually, way more things are inaccessible to PvP players. 

Gift of exploration, Gift of desert mastery/maguma, Aurora and Vision entirely, Legendary amulet or rings depending on if they do only WvW or Spvp. 

Those are all actually heavy investment in PvE. 

 

On the other hand, PvE players simply have to do 3h30/4h of WvW once in a while (and not even for all the legendary), and you can do it without ever encountering any player, actually, so it can be like PvE, actually. 

 

I'm a PvE player, I'm not a fan of WvW, but honestly, we really have it easy, on this part. 

...Except that if you're a PvP only player, you are already given the ability to swap stats at will, and THAT is the big QoL improvement that Legendaries bring.  This is the big lesson that so many other MMOs have learned but GW2 seems to be missing: the ability to cheaply and easily change builds.  It keeps the game fresh and exciting, which in turn keeps players playing (and paying).  Maybe this exists outside of Legendaries, but if so, it's not explained well, if at all, in-game (which is frankly THE greatest weakness in this game imho).

 

I don't mind WvW - I have my gifts of battle, and I honestly have fun with it. But how exactly do I avoid the PvP portion though if I want to work on legendaries (again, is this explained in the game anywhere)?  I can see how if I had started PvP 10 years ago, I'd be having a blast with it - utterly destroying noobs - but being on the other end of it?  Not really any fun getting instagibbed as I'm trying to learn a whole new build that doesn't seem to be viable anywhere else in the game.  And if I have to put in a hundred+ hours before it gets fun... Hard pass.

[Shuzuru.3651]

13 hours ago, Fodder.3529 said:

...Except that if you're a PvP only player, you are already given the ability to swap stats at will, and THAT is the big QoL improvement that Legendaries bring.  This is the big lesson that so many other MMOs have learned but GW2 seems to be missing: the ability to cheaply and easily change builds.  It keeps the game fresh and exciting, which in turn keeps players playing (and paying).  Maybe this exists outside of Legendaries, but if so, it's not explained well, if at all, in-game (which is frankly THE greatest weakness in this game imho).

 

I don't mind WvW - I have my gifts of battle, and I honestly have fun with it. But how exactly do I avoid the PvP portion though if I want to work on legendaries (again, is this explained in the game anywhere)?  I can see how if I had started PvP 10 years ago, I'd be having a blast with it - utterly destroying noobs - but being on the other end of it?  Not really any fun getting instagibbed as I'm trying to learn a whole new build that doesn't seem to be viable anywhere else in the game.  And if I have to put in a hundred+ hours before it gets fun... Hard pass.

Well, except that this point still stand for WvW as you need normal stuff, and while it's an important part, legendary are not only about the stat swap, so my point is still valid. 

Second, gw2 is probably the best game in the MMO market in term of easiness to swap build and gear, so it's kinda the opposite, all the market didn't learn that lesson, gw2 did.

I don't understand your last point about avoiding pvp, do you mean avoiding gift of battle ? You can't, but it's like 4-8h of WvW and you can probably do it without encountering any hostile player. 

[eXruina.4956]

no, legendary armor is also available from pve and wvw. 🙂

 

so its up to you to pick your poison. 😁

[Urud.4925]

On 2/18/2023 at 7:10 PM, vares.8457 said:

What religion prohibits PvP in video games? 
You can get legendary armor without having to do PvP or WvW. For the weapons you need the Gift of Battle. 

Your message is from February, but since this thread has been reopened, in case you are still curious, the Jehovah's Witnesses are against competitive PvP games (I don't know if they are the only ones). Some colleague of mine had to stretch a bit the rules to play Mario Kart. I find it quite fascinating. I'm not one of them, but I like the idea. (It was just information, I don't want to start a discussion about it.)

[AlCapwnd.7834]

On 2/18/2023 at 1:49 PM, Astral Storm.7590 said:

Okay thanks for your advice.  I might try to make a Healer Build on one of my chars and see if I can do WvW that way,

While healers are generally a hot commodity in WvW i would not recommend going that route for you. Unless you want to roam in a small /Large group, but then you will most likely run into fights. But fighting doesn't sound like your cup of tea. Make something tanky that can run and do damage. Cause you will meet some resistance in WvW and if you dont want to fight you will need to run. As much as I hate them id recommend thief so you can just stealth at the first sign of a fight and run away lol

[Jianyu.7065]

On 2/25/2023 at 8:35 PM, Shuzuru.3651 said:

False, actually, way more things are inaccessible to PvP players. 

Gift of exploration, Gift of desert mastery/maguma, Aurora and Vision entirely, Legendary amulet or rings depending on if they do only WvW or Spvp. 

Those are all actually heavy investment in PvE. 

 

On the other hand, PvE players simply have to do 3h30/4h of WvW once in a while (and not even for all the legendary), and you can do it without ever encountering any player, actually, so it can be like PvE, actually. 

 

I'm a PvE player, I'm not a fan of WvW, but honestly, we really have it easy, on this part. 

Yes, yes. False, False.

 

Pve players have to make the same investment in pve as a pvp player would - and vice versa for pve players in pvp.

Do you think it's more difficult for a pve player to cross over to pvp, or a pvp player to cross over into pve? Strictly in terms of accessibility, of course. Because the ease of acclimating to new content and gameplay features is likely the dividing line. 

Not much is being suggested here. I wasnt saying that pve players should have the best of both worlds just because they refuse to engage in pvp content. Just that there should be a more streamlined way for pve players to engage with the content they're already familiar with. And as it stands, stat changing ascended gear is a clunky mess that can arguably be considered more trouble than it's worth. I'm not sure why this system has to be arbitrarily more difficult for a pve player. It does feel like pve only players are missing out on this feature just because they won't play pvp. 

And it doesnt have to be easy. But something like an ascended+ feature where you at least can add easy stat changing OR, BIG OR just simply streamline stat changing on ascended gear. This would eliminate any qualms about feeling locked out of legendary gear for pve only players but still retain the wanting for legendary QoL features.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Jianyu.7065

[Axelteas.7192]

There's people who have traumas that avoid violence and confrontation even in a online mmorpg.

Imagine a kid that suffers bullying in the school, arrives home and gets ganked in PvP or WvW.

And you may say oh play a healer or support. But it's not the class is like the toxic competitivity against other people.

There should be an alternative (pacific farming) to acquire ascended gear.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Axelteas.7192

[Sobx.1758]

50 minutes ago, Jianyu.7065 said:

Yes, yes. False, False.

 

Pve players have to make the same investment in pve as a pvp player would - and vice versa for pve players in pvp.

Do you think it's more difficult for a pve player to cross over to pvp, or a pvp player to cross over into pve? Strictly in terms of accessibility, of course. Because the ease of acclimating to new content and gameplay features is likely the dividing line. 

Not much is being suggested here. I wasnt saying that pve players should have the best of both worlds just because they refuse to engage in pvp content. Just that there should be a more streamlined way for pve players to engage with the content they're already familiar with. And as it stands, stat changing ascended gear is a clunky mess that can arguably be considered more trouble than it's worth. I'm not sure why this system has to be arbitrarily more difficult for a pve player. It does feel like pve only players are missing out on this feature just because they won't play pvp. 

And it doesnt have to be easy. But something like an ascended+ feature where you at least can add easy stat changing OR, BIG OR just simply streamline stat changing on ascended gear. This would eliminate any qualms about feeling locked out of legendary gear for pve only players but still retain the wanting for legendary QoL features.

Plenty of ways to get exotic/ascended gear in pve though, you don't need to keep stat changing ascended gear. Pvp gear stat system is the way it is to make it a more controlled environment in an attempt to make it fair for the players competing against each other. On the other hand, I don't see why that would be needed in pve since the players are cooperating there instead of competing against each other.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Sobx.1758

[costepj.5120]

16 minutes ago, Axelteas.7192 said:

There's people who have traumas that avoid violence and confrontation even in a online mmorpg.

Imagine a kid that suffers bullying in the school, arrives home and gets ganked in PvP or WvW.

And you may say oh play a healer or support. But it's not the class is like the toxic competitivity against other people.

There should be an alternative (pacific farming) to acquire ascended gear.

Imagine the deeper horror of being ganked by a moa in PvE.