More a feature request or change than a problem

[DemonAtTheWheel.1804]

I submitted this via a support request, and was told to post it to the forums instead, so that the devs may see it. If this is the wrong location or sub-forum, admins please feel free to move it.

I have been in the process of trying to craft the legendary weapons and run into a bit of an issue.

Most, if not all, require a rather large number of geodes to be supplied to Scholar Mossi. Geodes can only be acquired from Dry Top, and they seem to take forever to get even 400 for one of them, but to craft all the legendary weapons you need about 9400 of them.

Other map currencies like lumps of aurillium can be acquired much faster, and some of the newer ones like unbound magic can be collected from multiple maps as well as by consuming winter berries and petrified wood.

Any chance that geode acquisition can be made easier? Possibly making geodes available in other areas or something? Grinding events in Dry Top for days or weeks really kind of stinks.

[derd.6413]

Use the reward tracks

[DemonAtTheWheel.1804]

No. that is not a solution at all

A) Many players don't like PvP or WvW play as much as PvE. Especially considering how noobs to those areas can be treated by some of the veterans that spend large amounts of time there.B ) Hours of game play for the reward tracks to get 300 geodes. No better than grinding for them, but having to deal with reason above.

[kharmin.7683]

@DemonAtTheWheel.1804 said:No. that is not a solution at all

Actually, it is a solution even if it is not preferable to some.

[Katastroff.1045]

Dont look at it like you have to grind 400 of them, see an opportunity to revisit the place. Also, avoid trying to get them all in 20 mins. Just go to Dry top and see if anyone is doing the meta, if so stick around and enjoy. If not, im sure you got lots of other stuff to gather for your Legendary. ;)

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Whilst you are gathering your 9400 Geodes in Dry Top, you can acquire the Geodes from Reward Tracks without participating in any kind of PvP. Though it takes more time, several of the WvW Dailies require little to no interaction with other players. Since you state you will be spending a lot of time gathering in Dry Top, the extra time for WvW Dailies-completed Reward Tracks should be of little concern.

Good luck.

[DemonAtTheWheel.1804]

I'm not trying to sound like a stick in the mud. I think this is a slight flaw in an otherwise great game. Something that could easily be remedied without rolling impacts to the other aspects of the game or significant impacts to the in-game economy.

@kharmin.7683 said:

@DemonAtTheWheel.1804 said:No. that is not a solution at all

Actually, it is a solution even if it is not preferable to some.

Yes and no. I am specifically asking for the devs to make mining/obtaining them easier or faster. As you need so many of them for legendaries, and there are other uses for them as well (Zeph keys, etc.), and they take so long to get. The reward track is no faster and certainly no easier for users that don't like PvP game play.

@Katastroff.1045 said:Dont look at it like you have to grind 400 of them, see an opportunity to revisit the place. Also, avoid trying to get them all in 20 mins. Just go to Dry top and see if anyone is doing the meta, if so stick around and enjoy. If not, im sure you got lots of other stuff to gather for your Legendary.

I'm there several times a week already, for dailies or crystal mining. It's not like I have not been there since LWS2, lol. And unless you happen to get there when the Zeph favor level is a 5 or rare 6, you are lucky to get like 120 an hour, cause you only earn a few per event unless there is a high level sand storm. And you are right, I do have other stuff to gather for legendaries, but I have four that are waiting on geodes, and I would rather be gathering other stuff than paying through Dry Top all day :)

In that same amount of time you could get nearly 1000 bandit crests doing RIBA in Silver Wastes with a crew, 1000-2000 unbound magic from Bitterfrost Frontier and Bloodstone Fen runs solo, or like 500 or more lumps of aurillium from just the Battle in Tarir meta event that takes like 20 minutes. Hell, you can get more than 200 lumps of aurillium if you just show up to the Forgotten City after the meta is over and loot the chests under the city, without even running the event.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 SAID:Whilst you are gathering your 9400 Geodes in Dry Top, you can acquire the Geodes from Reward Tracks without participating in any kind of PvP. Though it takes more time, several of the WvW Dailies require little to no interaction with other players. Since you state you will be spending a lot of time gathering in Dry Top, the extra time for WvW Dailies-completed Reward Tracks should be of little concern.

Last time I ventured into the WVW maps was to do the two jumping puzzles to get the completion achievement. It took me a dozen or more die/respawn attempts to get TO the Sapphire Sanctum puzzle simply because a bunch of crayon eating tools thought it was funny to dogpile on the solo person running.....even with me stating I was a non-combatant headed for the JP.

That is the precise reason I could never get into WOW, so I'm not tickled about going back there for a small amount of geodes per long amount of time spent.

[chaosdurza.3291]

I'd like to point out that 99% of the legendary crafting is done through PvE means. How do you think the PvP and WvW players feel for having to do a game mode they do not enjoy for almost all of the legendary weapon? I think the people that adamantly REFUSE to set foot in PvP/WvW should be thankful that they only need to do so to get a gift of battle. The rest of us have to suffer through PvE for a significantly longer amount of time.

Another solution (and the one that I used to get all the geodes for every legendary weapon I have) is to buy a bunch of black lion keys and get the Tyrian Exchange Vouchers. They drop semi regularly, and if I remember right, each one gives 400 geodes. If that still is not a good enough solution for you, suck it up and start farming. Do one weapon at a time, don't try to get all 9400 geodes for every single weapon. That'll get boring real quickly, and it would be much more enjoyable to farm for them when you have your shiny new weapon equipped!

[Gemnaid.4219]

I don’t know why support makes you post here.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Well then, you are in for a heap of disappointment with the Gift(s) of Battle.

[DemonAtTheWheel.1804]

@chaosdurza.3291 said:Another solution (and the one that I used to get all the geodes for every legendary weapon I have) is to buy a bunch of black lion keys and get the Tyrian Exchange Vouchers.

Thank you for that.... I had forgotten about those vouchers (grant 300 geodes, btw, according to the wiki)

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Well then, you are in for a heap of disappointment with the Gift(s) of Battle.

&*^&^^%$#%@&$^*! I forgot about those damned things.....and that you can no longer purchase them either.

[chaosdurza.3291]

@DemonAtTheWheel.1804 said:

@chaosdurza.3291 said:Another solution (and the one that I used to get all the geodes for every legendary weapon I have) is to buy a bunch of black lion keys and get the Tyrian Exchange Vouchers.

Thank you for that.... I had forgotten about those vouchers (grant 300 geodes, btw, according to the wiki)

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Well then, you are in for a heap of disappointment with the Gift(s) of Battle.

&*

^

&^^%$#%@&$^*! I forgot about those damned things.....and that you can no longer purchase them either.

No problem, I certainly can understand not wanting to spend any more time than absolutely necessary in Dry Top. I enjoy many of the PvE maps in this game, but that is not one of them lol

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned - map completion of Dry Top gives 100! If you have a lot of alts, or if you're swimming in ToK like most veterans, start doing map completion regularly. It's fast with mounts!

[Tiviana.2650]

Why not pve reward tracks also? Maybe for doing stuff like clearing zones of hearts and hero points, doing the events.

[Tyncale.1629]

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:I'm surprised no one's mentioned - map completion of Dry Top gives 100! If you have a lot of alts, or if you're swimming in ToK like most veterans, start doing map completion regularly. It's fast with mounts!

You can actually do map completion with a throwaway level 1 character, Mounts and the help of a friend, or in my case, an alt account for that one Heropoint where you have to beat a level 80 centaur. You will die a few times during map completion but you will get better at it after a few times. :) That Hero point and getting past the spiders in the tunnel when you go West to uncover the rest of the map are the hardest. You can also use that alt account to clear a few other points first, like killing the inquest on that plateau near the Mastery insight hero point. Most of the map you can manage without the alt account, with smart use of mounts. Do not worry about dying, waypointing costs like like 9 copper with a level 3 character, and you will be back on track soon enough with the mounts It's a pretty small zone actually. Unlock all Waypoints asap.

For that Heropoint: your low level character actually has to inititate the battle, but make sure your friend or Alt account (necro with minions work wonders) stands on top of that centaur, immediately taking over the battle, while you run your low level character out of range after you initiate the fight. The good thing about necro minions from the alt acouont is that they will instantly start attacking, so the centaur will not run after your low level. Then when the fight is mostly done, make sure to get some hits in, This may prove difficult, however I always managed to get at least some DPS in. Immediately run out of range again, one hit from that centaur will kill you off course.

It's actually fun! The best thing is that you can do this in your own time, even on an empty map.

[DemonAtTheWheel.1804]

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:I'm surprised no one's mentioned - map completion of Dry Top gives 100! If you have a lot of alts, or if you're swimming in ToK like most veterans, start doing map completion regularly. It's fast with mounts!

That is sort of just an alternate slow path to geode grinding. Not that 100 for completion is poop, but unless you could easily complete the map like 5 times in an hour, it is not really a solution. As stated previously, most other map or area currencies in the game, especially those you need large quantities of, are able to be acquired at 500 to well over 1000 in an hour if you find the right route to take or the right meta chain.

To be fair, map completion of Dry Top may result in a Black Lion Chest key (% chance), which might result in an exchange voucher, making that one run profit 400 rather than 100, but as keys are 20% chance, and vouchers are not a guarantee drop, you can not really rely on that.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@DemonAtTheWheel.1804 said:

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:I'm surprised no one's mentioned - map completion of Dry Top gives 100! If you have a lot of alts, or if you're swimming in ToK like most veterans, start doing map completion regularly. It's fast with mounts!

That is sort of just an alternate slow path to geode grinding. Not that 100 for completion is poop, but unless you could easily complete the map like 5 times in an hour, it is not really a solution. As stated previously, most other map or area currencies in the game, especially those you need large quantities of, are able to be acquired at 500 to well over 1000 in an hour if you find the right route to take or the right meta chain.

To be fair, map completion of Dry Top may result in a Black Lion Chest key (% chance), which might result in an exchange voucher, making that one run profit 400 rather than 100, but as keys are 20% chance, and vouchers are not a guarantee drop, you can not really rely on that.

But each legendary only requires 400 geodes, as opposed to the 1 000 bandit crests. That means 4 map completions, disregarding any other drops. It's not balanced around crafting all precursors, each is supposed to be a project on its own!

Also, there are exactly 4 legendaries where this process is unavoidable: the four initial gen 2 legendaries. All t1 legendaries have tradeable precursors, so even if you're collecting all legendaries you don't have to craft all precursors.

[Maikimaik.1974]

It takes less time than you might expect.

[Lost Dragons Tail.3760]

@Gemnaid.4219 said:I don’t know why support makes you post here.

Because is more a QoL request that needs devs to change coding in the game itself to do, not something support can help with. Support can't change the way the game is played. They can only adjust things within certain perimeters based on how the devs have coded the game.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

First, I agree the acquisition rate for geodes is kinda annoying. Second, a couple of pointers for the OP on the gift of battle:

1. WvW daily "Big Spender" can be completed in the guild hall by buying a badge of tribute for 30 badges of honor in the war room. You get badges of honor from achievement chests, WvW daily chests, and doing stuff in WvW. So you will have some in your wallet.
2. WvW daily "Master of Monuments". Basically go into your home borderland, waypoint to the keep, and run over and cap one of the five monuments in the center. Occasionally you will run into an enemy that wants to be disrespectful and kill you, but that's rare. And some of us are polite enough to let you finish getting your daily before we either kill you or let you go on about your way.
3. WvW daily "Veteran Creature Slayer". I always go to one of the enemy alpine border lands and head east out of our camp to find either the veteran harpy or veteran warg to kill. Most of the time you will find several other players from your team waiting around for them to spawn. If you have questions about where they spawn, just ask in map chat.

All three of those dailies will reward experience towards your reward track and a "Potion of WvW Rewards", which is good for 250 reward track points. You won't get there overnight, but by consistently doing those, you will get there. And do so much less frustratingly than having to farm geodes in DT, IMO.

[Mazreal Blackknight.1564]

you can always try your luck at black lion keys, I think the Tyrian Exchange vouchers are still in them. They have 300 geodes you can pick from them.. Ideal not at all but yet another option.

[Omega.6801]

"I want to craft a legendary but I actually don't want to craft it. I just want it sent to me on first login."-the thread...again...

[Etria.3642]

Does SAND still run the dry top event chains? They were instrumental for me. I still have roughly 500 left over from hanging around when they were doing these.

Also if you have the black lion expedition board you can set it to the wastes. Sometimes you get 10-12 geodes sometimes bandit crests. I chose to use mine for the rubies but it can be changed around.

[DemonAtTheWheel.1804]

@"lokh.2695" said:"I want to craft a legendary but I actually don't want to craft it. I just want it sent to me on first login."-the thread...again...

Not that at all. Quit being an elitist.

I want to craft them. I have greatly enjoyed the scavenger hunt aspect of collecting all the bits and pieces, as well as furthering the crafting disciplines that I would not otherwise have completed. Just, when you are progressing through the journey of crafting them all at a respectable pace, and suddenly hit a wall of "spend the next few weeks grinding this one map that many users feel is flawed" to continue, it kind of stinks.

I started off just crafting a single axe. Less than a week later I chose to also start a rifle, and realized that I was revisiting the same areas and doing similar tasks as I had already done for the axe. Realizing this, and that I would eventually want more of the legendaries, I spent the coin to start them all at the same time. This resulted in some runs through fractals would get me parts for 2 to 4 different legendaries, and once or twice I would get two pieces during a single meta. In other words, it makes sense to craft them all at the same time, if you desire to have one of each or want to achieve completion of that collection.

Add to this that geodes are also used to get Zephyrite lockpicks for normal use as well as to craft Ambrite weapons and Mawdrey. With so many uses, they should not be that hard to obtain.

@Etria.3642 said:Does SAND still run the dry top event chains? They were instrumental for me. I still have roughly 500 left over from hanging around when they were doing these.

They do, at least some times. I remember seeing them while looking for other groups before I got to the geode wall. Though they have not been running the last few times I was on the map, so I'm not sure what their scheduling is like for when they run that map.

@Etria.3642 said:Also if you have the black lion expedition board you can set it to the wastes. Sometimes you get 10-12 geodes sometimes bandit crests. I chose to use mine for the rubies but it can be changed around.

I don't have one of those yet, but it does sound like a useful tool to have. It only produces a small amount each day, but every bit helps :) Not to mention that I could leave it collecting while I work on other collections or something.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

You can get a few from the Home Instance Bandit Chest, as well.