Something New to Work Towards

[Zarghoul.5687]

So iv been playing since the start, but these days i find it so hard to play for extended periods of time, the annoying thing is i truly love gw2 and its community, the combat, the story, the lore, the world, but iv been wondering, the end game grind really isnt optimised well, we have new features yes, gliders, mounts, guild halls, raids, but if your like me and you enjoy your solo adventure, its really lacking, theres nothing in the game that makes me feel unique, im a huge fan of fashion wars 2, but even that can only go so far, the one thing i really loved in GW1 was the hall of monuments, working so hard to get weapons or armour, or even working on those mega grindy achievements, they were all rewarded with something, a statue, a banner, weapons rack, but GW2 we dont have that, we have 100s of achivements, some that are really hard to complete, but we just get a few more points added onto our score, i know the hall will never return, but i know we already have a place that can be altered, and is altered to each individual player, our home instance, at the moment its just nodes and chests, but it could be so much more, it could be built to fit the designs of the different races of tyria, or have elements from other cultures such as elona or cantha, and the best part is you can make it super grindy, all those mats could be used to build so much, cloth for tapestry's and paintings, wood for furniture and decoration, silver and gold for ornate decoration, individual recipes could be littered throughout the world, and there could be a trophy room, to show of your achievements, statues of your pvp rank animal, or a wall mount of your map completion medal, your priory, whispers or vigil banners could be displayed, paintings or statues of the defeated dragons or world bosses could be placed there, id happily go around the world ticking off old achievements, or farming mats if i knew i could put it towards something more permanent, than legendarys or ascended gear, plus id love a stable or small farm for our mounts, even if it was like assassins creed, where everything in your house is pre positioned, you just have to unlock it, id still work for it.

but if none of that is doable, then maybe we could have one last thing, on the character selection screen, give us another tab that displays an empty trophy room, that steadily becomes more filled as you tick of specific tasks, it might not be something anyone but you can see, but its still a great way to show what you've achieved

[Daddicus.6128]

I worked my way through all of the storyline missions in the core game. While some of it was grindy, most of it was rather eye-opening. It amazes me how the different story paths are interconnected, and also connected to the recurring events in the zones. I think the designers have really done a great job with it, but not many players spend the time to see it all.

Unfortunately, in order to complete ALL of the missions, you either have to partner with people doing some of them, or else create 30 characters. But, there's no reward for it other than patting yourself on the back for completing them.

There's a light version that can be done with only 15 characters: simply do only one of the paired missions whenever mission choices appear. You'll need 3 characters to go all the way through to Arah (basically, one for each of the orders). At Tier 4, you'll need 5 characters to hit all of the side-races (Skritt, Quaggan, etc.)

Finally, you'll need 15 for the tier 1 & 2 missions (one for each race, times three for the optional paths at startup.)

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

My personal suggestion, since you've done way more than me, take a brief sabbatical and do or play something else for at least 2 weeks (I suggest a month). After a vacation your next step will come organically and it may be something that hasn't occured to you yet, maybe you'll want to repeat something you've already done even.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@Zarghoul.5687 said:i know the hall will never return, but i know we already have a place that can be altered, and is altered to each individual player, our home instance, at the moment its just nodes and chests, but it could be so much more, it could be built to fit the designs of the different races of tyria, or have elements from other cultures such as elona or cantha, and the best part is you can make it super grindy

The home instance's alterations are not just nodes and chests. And of course there is one home instance in each of the racial capitals (Citadel, Grove, Rata Sum, DR, Hoelbrak) and they are culture-specific.

Look closely at it - it becomes gradually populated with people who appeared in your character's story. So my most-storied character Cleopatra Aegyptus gets to see the quaggans she rescued in her level 50 phase, and the two Shining Blade peeps from the lost parent's phase (level 20), and so on. And Ridhais, and M.O.X. (always complaining about hairballs). And when a different character, one with a missing sister, say, goes there, she sees skritt or hylek instead of quaggans, and she doesn't see the two Shining Blade folks because they don't appear in the sister story, and she doesn't see Ridhais or M.O.X. because she hasn't done those parts of the story yet.

But yes, there is more they could do with it.

[Ayakaru.6583]

Start a legendary, that'll keep you busy for months on end.I should know, found a Dawn like three, almost four months ago. And didn't even start from scrap when collecting the materials.But doing Palawadan ten times a day might get to you

[Archranis.2375]

Making legendaries will definitely give you something to do, as others have said.

If you're into fractals, you might work on getting the Infinite Mist Omnipotion. It will cost you over 20,000 Fractal Relics, so you'll be doing lots and lots of fractals. It's also a great item to have, if you're a fractal junkie.

Then there's always a full set (or multiple sets of) stat infusions. They take 3x the amount of agony infusions you'd use otherwise, so again, lots and lots of time in fractals to get all those +1 infusions and Stabilizing Matrices you'd need.

[starlinvf.1358]

I recommend not obsessing over needing progression or progression goals being the primary driver of your activity. Its a skinner box everyone has become to comfortable with, and the fallout of it is being felt across nearly every modern game. Its a paradox....... we want more stuff to accomplish, and in pursuing them we become hyper efficient at "completing tasks". But that hyper efficiency increases our burn rate of content- which in turn puts pressure on Developers to cut corners to get content out faster. With emphasis on Quantity over Quality, this has become a major reason lots of bland, generic "content" manages to sell like crazy, while high quality content is stuck in competition with something that has a fraction of the production cost and production speed, and thus potential price point.

I've found it more sanity friendly to meander between short term goals in spurts, so I'm not stuck doing one thing for too long; but also generalize long term goals into something as non-specific as possible, so I can execute on something while market trends are friendly toward it. For instance, I try to keep all my major crafting materials above 1000 each.... enough to do most crafting projects on the spot if needed. I then back fill the supply using gold when materials seem like they're cheapest, rather then focus farm something I'd need unholy amounts of on short notice. Like 3 weeks ago, T6 mats were the lowest they've been since year one, with T5 mats are in surplus and down to ~50c each. So I made a Mystic Tribute and back filled the supply with gold. I also took the opportunity to burn up my stock of elder wood and mithril on spare mystic curios, knowing the Gen2 long bow and Great sword will be coming up soon. And despite this happening, I'm also maintaining a big enough supply of mats to make a set of WvW Legendary armor...... which now having enough tickets to make , am openly questioning if I would actually need it given how I've already geared all my WvW builds on exotic armor and asc trinkets, and how the Devs are messing with the meta by systemically dismantling things one by one. Now I can't decide which weight class would have the most benefit, since each class is currently having issues with build dynamics when you look across PvE, WvW and Raids. Ranger currently has the most striking disparity in its Stat selection between its builds..... but its so static within each mode, its much easier to carry 3 gear sets, despite the amount of inventory space it takes up. I was considering Mesmer for a long time (its what started me on this rabbit hole in the first place)....... but I'm sick of being asked to be Chorno tank whenever I try to take it to raids, and can run WvW support build on the gear I already have (since its 90% on function rather then stat performance).

You've probably ran into this same problem of a million paths you can take, but no clear "optimal" path to lead you along.... so you're pushing for an obvious optimal path to follow, and want a reward system reinforce it. You need to break that habit as soon as you can, because its been fully weaponized in enough AAA games to be considered a danger. Its just too easy to fall into that skinner box hole, and most gamers are now conditioned to seek it out on a subconscious level. GW2's weird relationship with its reward system is one of its biggest saving graces, and I encourage players to properly wrap their minds around what it is, so they'll stop making (frankly insane) demands for overly specific grind farms that they themselves will get bored/burned-out within a few months anyway.

After 5 years of this game, I've found it just all around better to gather materials for a crafting project first, then deciding what I want to make with it in one go. This breaks down the act into much more manageable sub-goals, while avoiding the dangers of over committal for items that don't have high universal value. I know what I need to make a Legendary weapon...... so I let my attention dwell on materials I'm short of, and spend a day or two on whatevers most efficient for that. If I need gold, I'll go do event trains in various maps. If I need currency, I'll go do those maps for a few days. It works, because interim accomplishments are easy to recognize, and smaller scope reduces overshadowing by the long term goal. Getting 50 Powerful bloods in isolation seems like a good days work. But getting 50 Bloods when you need 500 makes it feel like a struggle.

[juhani.5361]

@Zarghoul.5687 said:So iv been playing since the start, but these days i find it so hard to play for extended periods of time, the annoying thing is i truly love gw2 and its community, the combat, the story, the lore, the world, but iv been wondering, the end game grind really isnt optimised well, we have new features yes, gliders, mounts, guild halls, raids, but if your like me and you enjoy your solo adventure, its really lacking, theres nothing in the game that makes me feel unique, im a huge fan of fashion wars 2, but even that can only go so far,

That's kind of the problem. Most of the endgame here focuses around hardcore group content and has little to keep a solo player entertained once you've gone through all of the story. Aside from the fashion wars thing, I know exactly where you're coming from. I may be at more of a disadvantage, because I haven't found the newest bits of story engaging at all and the whole fashion aspect is something I don't care much about beyond having my toons look more or less decent.

You could roll a few alts and see other aspects of the story you've missed. For me, alts are addictive until the story merges into sameness.

Personally, I'm popping in and out for 30-45 minutes a day-- enough to do the dailies and slowly level/map complete another ranger. Not exactly engaging, but fun enough for the moment. Beyond taking a break, have you thought about playing another game concurrently? You don't have to play only one game-- alternate it with something new and interesting. Right now, my main game is ESO.

the one thing i really loved in GW1 was the hall of monuments, working so hard to get weapons or armour, or even working on those mega grindy achievements, they were all rewarded with something, a statue, a banner, weapons rack, but GW2 we dont have that, we have 100s of achivements, some that are really hard to complete, but we just get a few more points added onto our score, i know the hall will never return, but i know we already have a place that can be altered, and is altered to each individual player, our home instance, at the moment its just nodes and chests, but it could be so much more, it could be built to fit the designs of the different races of tyria, or have elements from other cultures such as elona or cantha, and the best part is you can make it super grindy, all those mats could be used to build so much, cloth for tapestry's and paintings, wood for furniture and decoration, silver and gold for ornate decoration, individual recipes could be littered throughout the world, and there could be a trophy room, to show of your achievements, statues of your pvp rank animal, or a wall mount of your map completion medal, your priory, whispers or vigil banners could be displayed, paintings or statues of the defeated dragons or world bosses could be placed there, id happily go around the world ticking off old achievements, or farming mats if i knew i could put it towards something more permanent, than legendarys or ascended gear, plus id love a stable or small farm for our mounts, even if it was like assassins creed, where everything in your house is pre positioned, you just have to unlock it, id still work for it.

And this is why this game desperately needs a housing system. Something to give interested solo players that sense of permanence that the grouping sorts achieve through being part of a raid team or commanding metas/zergs in WvW. Something to work for that means something personal to them, and expresses who they are in-game. I don't personally get it, but from your description of your needs and what I've read from others like you, it's a necessity to keep you connected and engaged.

but if none of that is doable, then maybe we could have one last thing, on the character selection screen, give us another tab that displays an empty trophy room, that steadily becomes more filled as you tick of specific tasks, it might not be something anyone but you can see, but its still a great way to show what you've achieved

Haven't a few people suggested that as a substitute for housing, like a physical case in your home instance? The tab could work, but the shelving thing could be an awesome and more tangible expression.

[Zarghoul.5687]

yea i probably am really burnt out, but i do still enjoy logging in, i just find it hard to enjoy any tasks i set myself for, iv done a couple legendarys, and i had a phase of being really into pvp and wvw, but now i only really have the tp to work towards, and honestly if theres anything really to take away from this, i just want something out of achievements, theres so many super grindy ones, but no real reward for it, we used to have it in our alt select tab, we had the medal for world complete, the banners and then a symbol for our wvw and pvp rank, i was so into wvw kills just to see how tht alt screen logo would change, i mean would it be so bad to have tht tab back, but have different sections, like have one for the creature slaying achievements, or weapon master, it could be so diverse as there are so many achievements to work towards, i spent 100s of hours working for them in GW1