I hate grinding! advice from people who enjoy it.

[coso.9173]

So, I've known this since forever but I didn't know how bad it was. I just HATE grinding, any kind of repetitive process just absolutely kills my interest so damn fast!Even the simplest of grinds, like collecting berries 10 days in a row, I did it 2 days and the 3rd I was already bored to death from it and stopped doing it.Same will happen with the griffon collection probably. It's hard to set up any kind of mid/long term goal in this game that doesn't require it, but as much as I try, I just hate it too much.So, from those who actually enjoy it. how do you do it? how do you mentalize yourself to do something every day, the same thing, without getting bored to death? I guess I could learn a thing or two about that.

[Airdive.2613]

The "grind" itself is meditative. You just space out and watch some colourful pixels while getting slightly richer with every move. The best advice, however, would likely be to stop doing things you hate. You don't really miss out on anything anyway; it's really easy to acquire the best gear in GW 2, and beyond that there's only fun and some shiny pixels left to pursue.Griffon collection in particular requires no grind whatsoever, it's actually a set of unique collections with most of their tasks being simply "fill a heart and pay gold for the item" and "complete the event once", so I hope you're not going to hate it all that much.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Grind is something that I’m used to from old school RPG’s and I went into GW2 accepting that there would be a lot of grind as that’s one of the necessities for player retention.

My advice is only do grind for things that you absolutely want/need and just take your time. I sometimes put on music to help keep my mind off of what I’m doing if it’s very boring.

[Samnang.1879]

watch a movie/anime while u do it...

[Zexanima.7851]

@coso.9173 said:So, I've known this since forever but I didn't know how bad it was. I just HATE grinding, any kind of repetitive process just absolutely kills my interest so kitten fast!Even the simplest of grinds, like collecting berries 10 days in a row, I did it 2 days and the 3rd I was already bored to death from it and stopped doing it.Same will happen with the griffon collection probably. It's hard to set up any kind of mid/long term goal in this game that doesn't require it, but as much as I try, I just hate it too much.So, from those who actually enjoy it. how do you do it? how do you mentalize yourself to do something every day, the same thing, without getting bored to death? I guess I could learn a thing or two about that.

I loath grinding, so I don't do it very much. For instance, I hate picking kitten berries so I only did it for the backpack and it took me one afternoon on the weekend switching between characters. I blew laurels and badges from WvW on the rest of my ascended trinkets/accessories. I will do whatever I can to avoid grinding then just grind the last stretch when I can see the finish line, that way I won't get too demotivated.

[zengara.8301]

Meeeee tooiiii, personally tried SW years ago for like 30 mins when the HoT came out (there was an event for those who farmed in SW got free pass to the beta version or something of the map). Literally about to sleep in the morning. So stopped doing it and sold Arah paths.

Now, I am personally a pvp´er in other games, so I just WvW. Got a lot of gold and almost no bag space in 192 bag. Other game modes also got easy ways to acquire gold

[gateless gate.8406]

Do you want the reward that comes at the end of whatever grind you're doing? If so, do the grind. Do you not want the reward? If so, don't do the grind.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@coso.9173 said:So, I've known this since forever but I didn't know how bad it was. I just HATE grinding, any kind of repetitive process just absolutely kills my interest so kitten fast!Even the simplest of grinds, like collecting berries 10 days in a row, I did it 2 days and the 3rd I was already bored to death from it and stopped doing it.Same will happen with the griffon collection probably. It's hard to set up any kind of mid/long term goal in this game that doesn't require it, but as much as I try, I just hate it too much.So, from those who actually enjoy it. how do you do it? how do you mentalize yourself to do something every day, the same thing, without getting bored to death? I guess I could learn a thing or two about that.

There is no rush. In some MMOs, content remains relevant for 2 years and then another expansion drops and everyone has to level up and get new gear. If it takes you 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months to get enough berries for an ascended item, nothing will change in the interim. The only timeline that exists is the one you create for yourself.

So if you can't stand picking berries every day for 10 days, and who can blame you, just don't do it. Pick them every 2nd day, or twice a week, or just whenever you feel like it. You just have to manage your expectations on when you will be able to use that ascended item.

I'll give you an example: before they buffed the Blood Ruby drop in Bloodstone Fen, I had one of my WvW toons parked on the skyship. Every day before logging in to WvW, I'd jump off the ship and collect the two dailies (one for bombing people, other for collecting unbound magic). Some times I would even land and mine a couple of bloodstone nodes. That behaviour took maybe 5 minutes, but gave me daily karma, magic and ruby income, so whenever the time came when I needed to buy something with rubies, I always had 100-150 of them in storage.

But I could never stand going there daily to mine each node and try to complete each activity and event to maximize rubies per day.

For the Griffon collection, the only grindy part is getting the gold. When I started the collection I already had the coin, and I think I got the whole thing done over a weekend.

[Zexanima.7851]

@gateless gate.8406 said:Do you want the reward that comes at the end of whatever grind you're doing? If so, do the grind. Do you not want the reward? If so, don't do the grind.

This is a good way for someone to burn themselves out. If you're doing it just for the reward and not having fun, then why even play the game? It's perfectly reasonable for someone playing a game focused around combat to not want to spend multiple hours going around clicking on bushes and picking berries. That is more the kind of thing I expect from something like Runescape, not GW2.

[Elothar.4382]

First, as you requested, this is from someone who enjoys it. Why do I enjoy it? No idea. I just do. Having said that, a couple of things that keep me centered. First, I rarely grind every day for weeks and weeks on end. I'll go out and grind a map for a few days (Bitterfrost, Ember Bay, and such)... then switch to something else. I run metas several times a week in different zones, mostly HoT and SW. Sometimes I map clear in old Tyria. I just try to vary my activities when I feel the tedium set in.

Second thing, when I am grinding, I force myself to keep a relaxed pace. I put on a good playlist and enjoy the music while I bounce around doing whatever needs to be done. And, once I meet my goal for that particular grind session, I never drop into another grind. I either log out or go do something else.

I've been playing since launch and these strategies have helped to keep me engaged. But, again, I actually enjoy the grind, so this may not work for you.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@"gateless gate.8406" said:Do you want the reward that comes at the end of whatever grind you're doing? If so, do the grind. Do you not want the reward? If so, don't do the grind.

This is a good way for someone to burn themselves out. If you're doing it just for the reward and not having fun, then why even play the game? It's perfectly reasonable for someone playing a game focused around combat to not want to spend multiple hours going around clicking on bushes and picking berries. That is more the kind of thing I expect from something like Runescape, not GW2.

MMOs all use the same design philosophy, that being, what can they do to ensure players play the game for as long as possible. When you get right down to it, most of what we do in game is repetitive busy work. Think of what is normally required for heart completion, or even dynamic events. That is what MMOs are all about.

But intensity to which you complete the grind is up to each player. Some will do T4 dailys + CM each and every day so they can hit Fractal God in under a year. Others might be fine with it taking 2-3 years to complete, so will only do fractals a few times per week. Others still are "fractal what title?", and just do fractals whenever they feel in the mood. None of those paradigms is any more right or wrong than the other, it all depends on the preferences of the player.

But what makes GW2 an MMO different from others, is that you never fall behind because you aren't grinding at the acceptable rate. When you look at titles like WoW where you need a minimum gear level to even enter into 5-person content, not grinding your daily quests for rewards to upgrade you gear can lead to you falling behind, and no longer being accepted / allowed into groups. Won't see that in this game.

[coso.9173]

Thanks a lot for the comments, there are some ery good tips so far :)as for rewards and goals, i agree that I'm only doing it when I really want something. in this case ascended equipment and the griffon. I need the berries for ascended, and even that's one of the easiest ones to get (not counting all the ones i got with laurels) and then i have to get my actual armor pieces, I don't know how I'll do that, maybe fractals?and the griffon isn't that boring since I do enjoy doing hearts (as long as it's not the same one over and over again) and the eggs. but I do need the gold and that will surely require some grinding too.I'll do things at my pace, that was a good advice, neither the griffon or the ascended equipment is a requirement for anything so far, and no point in burning myself out so fast without reason. Also 250gold is more or less 10$ in gems so it's also an option in case I don't want to do it that way.

[gateless gate.8406]

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@gateless gate.8406 said:Do you want the reward that comes at the end of whatever grind you're doing? If so, do the grind. Do you not want the reward? If so, don't do the grind.

This is a good way for someone to burn themselves out. If you're doing it just for the reward and not having fun, then why even play the game? It's perfectly reasonable for someone playing a game focused around combat to not want to spend multiple hours going around clicking on bushes and picking berries. That is more the kind of thing I expect from something like Runescape, not GW2.

So don't pick the berries.

[Wolfhound.4381]

I run 2 monitors. I have Netflix on one and my game up on the other. Great for content such as farming nodes, wold boss trains, or map completion.

[fill.3106]

i did the jade fragment farm in Lake Doric just to get the ascended backpiece. Did that everyday with 3 alts until i had enough to give to my 10 alts. I'm used to grinding since i played jprgs ever since i was a kid. But for me, to get into the mood and mindset to mindlessly grind items everyday, i just turn on music and familiarize the route to finish it asap. And know that the goal gets there sooner everyday.

And be thankful this game is very casual when it comes to grinding. Other games are MUCH MUCH more difficult and/or boring when grinding. IE WoW rep grinding....it would take me months of everyday playing just to finish one rep to buy a mount lol.

[coso.9173]

i guess part of the problem is that when I play I try to be as immersed as possible in the game, headphones for the game music, and nothing to distract me from it, while from wht I've read most people leave it as a semi AFK state where they either listen to some music, or watch some series.

[Westenev.5289]

I avoid farms like the plague, and I don't feel any worse off for it. The game rewards you for basically doing anything besides standing still.

[Magnus Godrik.5841]

You dont have to grind. My susuggestion is to play everything and as soon as you get bored jumped into something else. Me personally i do the i fusion train on reset. Then maybe some fractals or raids. And when that gets old i start mapping while queing in pvp. Weekends I like to wvw because thats when it feels its at its fullest. By doing all this i acquired some wealth and pretty much got everything i wanted and worked for.

[Goettel.4389]

It's pretty easy: I only do grinds I enjoy :-)That does mean I'll never have the aptly named Nevermore, but hey ho.GW2 is 'just' a game, and I treat it as such. If I don't enjoy playing, I won't.

[ArchonWing.9480]

I play mostly WvW, so I get my currency from reward tracks. But this isn't good if you don't play WvW as it is not very time efficient. It's just that I play WvW anyways.

Also take your time. For example, I finished my personal story in a few weeks (did not do most of it for 6 years.... it is so boring!) by just setting aside some time to do it piece by piece. The moment I got miserable, I would end it.

So I guess the best way to grind is to not grind but do it a bit at a time when you're actually ready for it. Also helps if you dedicate a single character for the task so you don't have to keep waypointing around and whatnot.

[Etria.3642]

I don't mind grinding but that said. I have something else going on while I do it.

For instance I play D&D online every Sunday. If I ONLY did that I would be bored out of my skull since its 90% audio and only when your turn is up does it matter for looking at the map. Once in awhile they still need a roll of the dice but yeah. Audio.

So while that is going on I do something mindless in game. Mindless because my ATTENTION is on the D&D game for audio but visually and physically I'm at least DOING something.

Istan used to be the bees knees for this. I don't really like sw anymore so lately I've been going through the ls4 maps farming currency. If they decide to require 250 of each currency I will have it. If not I can eat it all and convert the VM to either sell or buy a node.

It does leave out farms that require attention since I can't give it.

[Erasculio.2914]

OP, like you, I hate grinding.

My suggestion is: simply don't do it.

If you are concerned about the Griffon, the grind there is basically getting the gold. Many activities give gold - just play through the content you enjoy, and sooner or later you will have the required 250 gold.

Same with ascended gear. I have never bothered with ascended armor, but I have done a few of the specialization collections (so I have some ascended weapons) and just playing the game normally gives a lot of laurels to buy ascended jewelry with.

Have fun, and enjoy the game - eventually you'll get everything you want. If you have done everything you enjoy already, what would be the point of ascended armor? In what content would you use it anyway?

There used to be a mentality that "all MMORPGs are based on grind", "all MMORPGs are going to have fedex and 'kill 10 rats' quests, that's just part of the genre", and so on. Those were lies people ate simply because it was easy for MMORPG developers to keep making games like that, and the result is what we have today: MMORPGs are pretty much dying, with only a few (and old) games keeping the genre alive. What people saw as flaws intrinsic to the MMORPG genre were just excuses made by developers to keep releasing bad games.

You don't have to grind if you don't want to. Just have fun :)

[Obtena.7952]

How I solve the 'grind' ... I do the same content, but I use different characters and builds ... switch it up ...

[Zephyra.4709]

Everyone is different... but if there's one thing for sure, I just cbf grinding for gold. I'm so lazy when it comes to that. Unless I can go back in time by a decade and play RS then I don't mind grinding for moolah there... good times. Those were different days.

You did mention berry farm... hit up a hr music mix on YT and play a guessing game of how many berries will I get on this char? In other words, don't think about it. Just do it. With griffon I wish you luck. I got mine done pretty fast with the rush of players for group content, make sure to post in LFG or ask friends/guildies if they can help you out.

I went on my alt acc to level up the story and it was hell but I'm stubborn and hate not having the new maps unlocked for gear. Just set yourself mini goals and have that mentality of "I'm gonna finish this today even if it's just the tip of the iceberg."

Good luck.

[Anchoku.8142]

The trick is in the developers mitigating the repetetive portion of the grind.

Grind boils down to working for many hours to achieve a goal and getting a desired reward.

The dev's could make the process so tedious that people leave the game despite finishing the achievement. Instead, if the "Gates" are checked off for doing things people do not think of as "tedious and repetitive chores, ad infinitum," then an achievement is more palatable.

Things people do not like include...

1. Zerg the same open world events 10,000 times for a 1% chance at a legendary drop.
2. Pay an enormous amount of gold for a flying mount.
3. Collect a bunch of stuff every day and craft it, a day at a time for a whole bunch of days, to get something that yields almost no benefit and can be gotten by doing almost anything else.

My advice is to ignore stuff you do not feel strongly about. It is the best feedback to developers.