How are the Casual players doing with their Legendary PVE Armor?

[Cyninja.2954]

There are 4 major time gates/grinds for Obsidian Armor:

1. T1-3 Essence 

Total amount needed per 6 piece armor set: 18,000 T1, 7,200 T2 and 3,600 T3

At 250 T1, 100 T2 and 50 T3 Essence from Kryptis Convergence Extraction Chests, that's a total of exactly 72 convergences. At 3 per week, that's a total of 24 weeks for the essence needed (not counting the additional essence for the armors and prerequisites) at 1-1.5 hours per week of doing convergences.

2. Gift of Stormy Skies materials, aka map materials

Total amount needed per 6 piece armor set: 30 high end map resource (converted 1 for 250 lower map resource or selected from daily meta chest), 1,250 lower map resource on top for 3 maps

That's a total of 90 (3x30) and 3,750 (3x1,250) upgraded and lower tier map resource (a total of 26,250 map currencies). Most metas in SotO provide on average 1.5 - 2 upgraded map resource worth of currency (in form of basic map resource and direct select able upgraded resource), that's approximately 375-400 map resource per meta , so on average 70 metas total.

At 3 metas per day, that's 23 days total. At 3 metas per week, that's 23 weeks total. Assuming 30 minutes per meta, that's another 1.5 hours per week.

3. Unusual Coins

Total amount needed per 6 piece armor set: 1,250

Opening Greater Chests yields 7-10 coins. That's the equivalent of opening 147 Greater Chests (1250 / ((7+10)/2)) or at 10 chests per day, 15 days. If going for 24 weeks, that's the equivalent of opening 1 Greater Chest on 5 out of 7 days of the week.

4. Gold and Materials

Equivalent to other Legendary armor mostly, slightly more expensive due to Ectos needed. At approximately 550-600 gold per piece, this amounts to 3,300 - 3,600 gold total. Over a period of 24 weeks, that amounts to 137.5 gold per week needed (not accounting for any gains from the Wizard Vault which would reset on average twice during those 24 weeks and would yield around half of the gold needed).

 

Overall the open world legendary armor require a significantly lower time requirement than any of the other armors (rivaling full clear in decent time raid armor), taking significantly less time than WvW armor at same week time frame, and offering far less frustration than Spvp armor.

The only downside it has is: it's very SotO tied and increasing the speed to make the armor reduces time efficiency significantly (farming rifts, etc). For any player going at this casually and sticking to 24 weeks as frame for 1 set (that's 1 piece every 4 weeks, aka 1 per month), this can be done very casually with 2-3 hours per week of game play (excluding the gold/materials required, which would make Wizard Vault engagement and other farming necessary to some extent).

 

TL;DR:

Contrary to player criticism and beliefs, the time frames, lockouts and design for Obsidian Armor actually work out very nicely to make it a very casual engagement set over a period of 24 weeks, with the option to grind more for faster results (which should have been obvious, given some of us had all 3 sets the moment the ability to craft the armor was available and that was a time frame of around 6 months, half of them lacking convergences).

[Eclipse.4758]

12 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

I wish that was the case, but it's not. Without grinding there's no way i'd ever have enough mats for that armor. Neither rifts, nor SotO in general are interesting enough to touch them more than the few initial times (and few more for achieves maybe) when "playing the game normally".

Thankfully i don't need another legendary set and it doesn't appeal to me visually all that much to put a lot of effort into it, so i'll manage.

It's absolutely the case.

Just because you don't want to play the most recent content doesn't make it a "Must grind. Must get armor set NOW!! NOW!! NOW!!" kind of thing. It's a long distance marathon that you CAN take your leisure time on and simply gather what you need over several months of casual play. A personal lack of interest in the necessary content doesn't make what I've said any less true.

If there's ever been a perfect example of Patience vs Instant gratification, its legendary anything.

[Reznov.5423]

Got No motivation to make any because l am doing just fine with exotic gears

[Randulf.7614]

It's prob just me, but I find it less clear how to make a piece compared to other legendaries, even when using the wiki

[Witch of Doom.5739]

I'm a casual player, but I put a lot of hours into the game and mostly love it.  At first I was excited about Legendary Armor but as my SOTO experience dragged on, I became less enthusiastic.  I hate rift hunting; it's so same-y and mind-numbingly boring, and I hate the Nayos maps.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's hard but I just don't enjoy the grind yet am glad so many people are excited about and working on Legendary Armor.  I find that I enjoy crafting Legendary Weapons a lot more, so that's where I spend my time.

[Zera.9435]

19 minutes ago, Witch of Doom.5739 said:

I'm a casual player, but I put a lot of hours into the game and mostly love it.  At first I was excited about Legendary Armor but as my SOTO experience dragged on, I became less enthusiastic.  I hate rift hunting; it's so same-y and mind-numbingly boring, and I hate the Nayos maps.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's hard but I just don't enjoy the grind yet am glad so many people are excited about and working on Legendary Armor.  I find that I enjoy crafting Legendary Weapons a lot more, so that's where I spend my time.

I made all 3 sets. I can assure you NO ONE enjoys grinding that many rifts. You're not alone in that sentiment. I did it because it was the fastest and most efficient way to get more than 54000 T1 essences. I chipped away at it almost every day for a couple months. As tedious as it was, I found it worth my time. It kept me engaged with the game, which is what ArenaNet wants. It's a win-win. Now I'm casually saving up mats for the variant. I doubt I'll have exactly everything needed for the variants on day one, but I will have a very nice starting point.

[Zera.9435]

2 hours ago, Reznov.5423 said:

Got No motivation to make any because l am doing just fine with exotic gears

Totally valid. Just take comfort in the knowledge that you now have the option to get legendary armor WITHOUT having to rely on other players extensively, if you so wish. It will definitely keep you busy.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

20 minutes ago, Zera.9435 said:

I made all 3 sets. I can assure you NO ONE enjoys grinding that many rifts. You're not alone in that sentiment. I did it because it was the fastest and most efficient way to get more than 54000 T1 essences. I chipped away at it almost every day for a couple months. As tedious as it was, I found it worth my time. It kept me engaged with the game, which is what ArenaNet wants. It's a win-win. Now I'm casually saving up mats for the variant. I doubt I'll have exactly everything needed for the variants on day one, but I will have a very nice starting point.

Awesome, I am truly happy for those with more intestinal fortitude than I (which is most players, lol)!  It would be a boring ol' world if we all liked the same things.  Now, back to my grind for the mats to make The Binding of Ipos.  😀

[Zera.9435]

6 minutes ago, Witch of Doom.5739 said:

Awesome, I am truly happy for those with more intestinal fortitude than I (which is most players, lol)!  It would be a boring ol' world if we all liked the same things.  Now, back to my grind for the mats to make The Binding of Ipos.  😀

Great choice, I have that one as well 😄

[Cyninja.2954]

2 hours ago, Witch of Doom.5739 said:

Awesome, I am truly happy for those with more intestinal fortitude than I (which is most players, lol)!  It would be a boring ol' world if we all liked the same things.  Now, back to my grind for the mats to make The Binding of Ipos.  😀

Don't grind rifts. Do convergences weekly. If that's something you can stomach, you will get enough essence within around 24 weeks (less actually but 24 weeks is just the chests) or less from just those convergence weekly chests.

Grinding rifts is actually very inefficient time wise and only good for speeding things up. Even then, make sure to do weekly rift maps with convergence buff and motivations.

Doing rifts without motivation or convergence buff is literally just throwing time away. Might as well just farm gold and stick to weekly convergences then because the time saved is negligible at best without any of the essence increases. It's like saving collecting 10-20% of the essence needed while doubling and tripling the time spent.

Edited April 19 by Cyninja.2954

[Zera.9435]

15 minutes ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

Grinding rifts is actually very inefficient time wise and only good for speeding things up.

Kind of contradicting yourself here. How is speeding things up a bad thing? I got a lot of karma, xp, salvage materials (and ectos because of it) while grinding rifts. It's a chore, yes, but it's not like it was for nothing. It's a great way for anyone who actually wants to invest the time to make a little extra karma/xp/loot.

[Linken.6345]

20 minutes ago, Zera.9435 said:

Kind of contradicting yourself here. How is speeding things up a bad thing? I got a lot of karma, xp, salvage materials (and ectos because of it) while grinding rifts. It's a chore, yes, but it's not like it was for nothing. It's a great way for anyone who actually wants to invest the time to make a little extra karma/xp/loot.

If you read the rest of the post it only really speeds it up if you do the weekly maps with some buff from already doing convergences apparently.

[Surelia.2651]

On 4/15/2024 at 11:45 PM, Cyninja.2954 said:

2. Gift of Stormy Skies materials, aka map materials

Total amount needed per 6 piece armor set: 30 high end map resource (converted 1 for 250 lower map resource or selected from daily meta chest), 1,250 lower map resource on top for 3 maps

That's a total of 90 (3x30) and 3,750 (3x1,250) upgraded and lower tier map resource (a total of 26,250 map currencies). Most metas in SotO provide on average 1.5 - 2 upgraded map resource worth of currency (in form of basic map resource and direct select able upgraded resource), that's approximately 375-400 map resource per meta , so on average 70 metas total.

At 3 metas per day, that's 23 days total. At 3 metas per week, that's 23 weeks total. Assuming 30 minutes per meta, that's another 1.5 hours per week.

Not to split hairs with you, but your math is off.

1 meta currency costs 250 lower tier currency.  1250 is the cost for 5 (one piece of armour).  1250 x 6 = 7500

Put another way, 90 total meta currencies for one full set of armour (30 from each map) cost a total of 22,500 lower tier currency.  

There is an additional 1500 lower tier currency in total needed for the Gift of Persistence for each piece (250 x 6 pieces = 1500). 

So total map currency needed would be 24,000

[Witch of Doom.5739]

2 hours ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

Don't grind rifts. Do convergences weekly. If that's something you can stomach, you will get enough essence within around 24 weeks (less actually but 24 weeks is just the chests) or less from just those convergence weekly chests.

Grinding rifts is actually very inefficient time wise and only good for speeding things up. Even then, make sure to do weekly rift maps with convergence buff and motivations.

Doing rifts without motivation or convergence buff is literally just throwing time away. Might as well just farm gold and stick to weekly convergences then because the time saved is negligible at best without any of the essence increases. It's like saving collecting 10-20% of the essence needed while doubling and tripling the time spent.

Whatever.  I just plain hate rifts.  In any form or format or timing.

[Cyninja.2954]

8 hours ago, Zera.9435 said:

Kind of contradicting yourself here. How is speeding things up a bad thing? I got a lot of karma, xp, salvage materials (and ectos because of it) while grinding rifts. It's a chore, yes, but it's not like it was for nothing. It's a great way for anyone who actually wants to invest the time to make a little extra karma/xp/loot.

The question is always: at what cost?

Short math on how "efficient" different essence collection methods are:

1. Convergences (3 weekly)

250 T1, 100 T2, 50 T3 per chest (plus what ever more you get from the convergence and the repeatable achievements). At 30 minutes per convergence, that's the equivalent of 800 essence per hour (but you only get 1.5 hours worth)

2. Rift hunting with convergence buff AND motivation

That's around 45-50 essence per rift. Assuming 10 rifts per hour, that comes out to around 500 essence per hour total. That's a lot of additional cost for motivations though

3. Rift hunting with convergence buff but no motivation

That's around 15-20 essence per rift. Assuming 10 rifts per hour, that comes out to around 200 essence per hour total.

4. Rift hunting without convergence buff and no motivation

That's around 7-10 essence per rift. Assuming 10 rifts per hour, that comes out to around 100 essence per hour total.

5. Weekly Rifts

Weekly Rift chests add another on average 10-12 essence per rift. Simply add another 100 essence per hour to the calculations above (except convergence).

 

So as I said: before players start wasting time on running rifts, which will speed up the time to acquire the legendary armor insignificantly, they are better off doing something else. This counts double for players which do not enjoy rift hunting or players which are not using motivations, convergence buff or going for weekly rifts. You are basically throwing away time at this point.

That time could be spent on playing/farming/spending time on things a player enjoys instead. My advice is based around maximizing time efficiency while minimizing time spent on rifts for players not enjoying rifts (and even if you do, by the time one gets to the 3rd armor you'll have grown out of it).

6 hours ago, Surelia.2651 said:

Not to split hairs with you, but your math is off.

1 meta currency costs 250 lower tier currency.  1250 is the cost for 5 (one piece of armour).  1250 x 6 = 7500

Put another way, 90 total meta currencies for one full set of armour (30 from each map) cost a total of 22,500 lower tier currency.  

There is an additional 1500 lower tier currency in total needed for the Gift of Persistence for each piece (250 x 6 pieces = 1500). 

So total map currency needed would be 24,000

Good catch, I mixed up the value the wiki was giving for 5 captured lightning with the correct 1,500 needed (6x250). Yes, my math is off here. Coins are also off by 250, but in the end this doesn't change the approach I am suggesting to much.

6 hours ago, Witch of Doom.5739 said:

Whatever.  I just plain hate rifts.  In any form or format or timing.

Fair enough, if you do not like rifts or convergences then the armor is out of reach.

Edited April 20 by Cyninja.2954

[Therac.6431]

I just crafted the Heavy set, imo the raid one is ugly and i never liked him, was thinking about the PvP one but obsidian saved me, now i have 2 from raids and 1 from Rifts, expecting a T2 version with effort enough to offer an epic skin

[Eulefant.9624]

16 hours ago, Reznov.5423 said:

Got No motivation to make any because l am doing just fine with exotic gears

Exactly this, I run 140 characters in 3 accounts, love to fashion, but I havent read up even on how to get legendaries. As a solo player I could never do anything legendary after T1 anyway. Exotic work fine. 

[Witch of Doom.5739]

8 hours ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

Fair enough, if you do not like rifts or convergences then the armor is out of reach.

Yes, and that's OK with me.  I've played GW since beta of GW1 and have learned that there's so much I love in the game that spending time on what I don't love is the opposite of fun.  There are many things in the game I'll never have (don't play PvP, Raids, etc.) and I accept that.  I'm really glad that many players enjoy getting the Legendary Armor -- I shall admire it from afar!

[Lucy.3728]

On 4/15/2024 at 3:53 AM, Garrison Storm.3046 said:

But OMG my current pain and bottleneck are the Provisioner Tokens... 300 doesn't seem like a lot

To me that's a lot.

Dunno what I needed them for, maybe the leg. runes?, but I even crafted armor and weapons to trade them at vendors in HoT for the tokens. 1 token for 1 piece of armor/weapon.

I bookmarked several recipe lists like this https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/calculator/a~0!b~1!c~0!d~1-46281;1-46040;1-46186;1-45731;1-45765;1-45622 (per vendortab, since only 1 item per tab can be traded) to determine what is worth to craft and what's too expensive or which can I craft to sell to get some money back.

(And now I can just trade 25 of them for wvw currency every week xD But I only have a bit over 300 of them too since I need the wvw tickets for other leg. armor)

Edited April 21 by Lucy.3728

[Gehenna.3625]

10 hours ago, Lucy.3728 said:

To me that's a lot.

Dunno what I needed them for, maybe the leg. runes?, but I even crafted armor and weapons to trade them at vendors in HoT for the tokens. 1 token for 1 piece of armor/weapon.

I bookmarked several recipe lists like this https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/calculator/a~0!b~1!c~0!d~1-46281;1-46040;1-46186;1-45731;1-45765;1-45622 (per vendortab, since only 1 item per tab can be traded) to determine what is worth to craft and what's too expensive or which can I craft to sell to get some money back.

(And now I can just trade 25 of them for wvw currency every week xD But I only have a bit over 300 of them too since I need the wvw tickets for other leg. armor)

The thing is, though, that people expect that legendary gear can be made in a week or so with not too much fuss. 300 provisioner's tokens is a high number when you see it like that but when you break it down it's 50 per Gift and you can easily get 10-20 per day because there are many places all over Tyria where you can get them. So 3 days for one Gift essentially. I mean it can be faster but that depends on a number of things. 

Just break stuff down instead of using the total number and just start doing it. Don't stare yourself blind on the total numbers.

[Ashen.2907]

20 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

The thing is, though, that people expect that legendary gear can be made in a week or so with not too much fuss. 300 provisioner's tokens is a high number when you see it like that but when you break it down it's 50 per Gift and you can easily get 10-20 per day because there are many places all over Tyria where you can get them. So 3 days for one Gift essentially. I mean it can be faster but that depends on a number of things. 

Just break stuff down instead of using the total number and just start doing it. Don't stare yourself blind on the total numbers.

As much as I am not going for the Obby armor I did want to support the point being made here. It applies to much more than just an armor set in a computer game. Most daunting, massive, complex, whatever tasks can be broken down into much more manageable pieces. Doing so helps you avoid a sense of being overwhelmed and allows you to have moments of a sense of accomplishment along the way. Kudos for pointing this out Gehenna.

[Geronmy.3298]

did 3 pieces, have enough essences for 4th and 5th but i'm out of any other material. Currently doing metas and stuff to farm them out. I'm pacing myself to finish my first set in the next 3 months.

[Dark Red Killian.3946]

On 4/14/2024 at 9:53 PM, Garrison Storm.3046 said:

Hey all, just wanted to get some feedback from all of those casual players who are still working on their SOTO Obsidian Armor set...

As someone who doesn't particularly enjoy PVP or WvW, I decided to take the plunge even if it was going to less efficient than other modes... I'm now halfway through the first set... what's everyone's impression to date?  

While the sheer number of Essences to grind seemed intimidating, so far just running public Convergences (participating, and picking up 4-6 Essence nuggets) daily along with the weekly rift running has kept me ahead of the game to date...  And while ectos remain expensive and a potential bottleneck, if you're not inclined to purchase outright, you pick up enough of them running through the SOTO metas on a daily basis, as you also acquire the map currencies and arcane chest coins.  While ectos can be slow to accumulate, you can also take a break and grind for them in whatever game-mode appeals to you most...

But OMG my current pain and bottleneck are the Provisioner Tokens... 300 doesn't seem like a lot, and while I had enough reserves to burn through the first piece or two... what a pain it is to be crafting/purchasing/saving and then jumping all over the map on a daily basis to purchase/exchange a couple at a time... I didn't have the foresight to realize this in advance to start accumulating, and what an absolute slog now... Easily the most aggravating aspect of the collection, as ridiculous as it seems, for me to date...

For provision tokens, do the daily craft in wizards tower for 4, then go to each wp in soto maps and exchange for wood/leather/metal. There are a couple easy to pick up in Lion’s arch, and the obsidian shard in black citadel. You can easily get 50 provision tokens in 3-4 days doing this.

[Gehenna.3625]

14 hours ago, Geronmy.3298 said:

did 3 pieces, have enough essences for 4th and 5th but i'm out of any other material. Currently doing metas and stuff to farm them out. I'm pacing myself to finish my first set in the next 3 months.

This is the way.

[Solvar.7953]

The provisioner tokens are somewhat annoying, regardless what you need them for.  The vendors are spread across all sorts of different maps (hopping from one to the other is hardly what I would call interesting play), and the cost of what you can buy (via materials) can have greatly different prices - one of the various weapons will cost ~30s, where as 20 superior sigils of icebrood slaying will run you closer to 25 gold.  And there are some items with even lower values - I have more obsidian shards than I need, so I exchange those in 1/day.

But the fastest way, if you play much WvW, is to exchange the WvW currencies - you can do 25/week, so only need to do 1/week (vs daily) and you get a nice stash quickly.

https://fast.farming-community.eu/conversions/provisioner-token is a handy list of the relative costs of how to get the different tokens.