bit of feedback from a newbie

[Remik.7438]

Hey there, started playing 1 week ago and so far i've done mostly PvP, although i've just started to look into what needs to be done in order to level your character and get good gear for WvW and high end PvE activities and oh boy is it a grind.So here I come just giving my feedback, hoping maybe it will help for a potential GW3, obviously i'm going to point out what i don't like or what I think should be improved, but i'd like to let you know that I really enjoyed my short time here, I think there are some really good ideas with a lot of potential, the game feels unique and.. somehow genuine.

The grind :

Leveling to 80, alright, it seems to be quite reasonable compared to other MMOs, but the gear ? leveling one job to 500 is already a huge investment ( both in time and gold, which means even more time. ), some may disagree because they already know everything there is to know about crafting and have a shit ton of gold at their disposal, but as a new player it looks like climbing the bloody everest would be easier. ( yes, even with guides )but seriously ? different weapons require different jobs ? different armor types require different jobs ?

Let's take my example, i'd like to play both ranger and necro, because i like both and i would get bored pretty quickly playing only one character. i'd have to level ALL of the jobs except for armorsmith and chef ( which is 6 jobs in the end, lol. ) in order to get those characters geared, so in the end i probably won't and just log in casually to play some PvP, till i'll just stop because i'll be bored of doing the same thing over and over ( let's not pretend, although the game's combat and gameplay feel unique and bring some change if it's only to play PvP then competitive games are much better alternatives, i'll develop after )

So yeah i feel like there's way too much grind and it's way too tedious.now that's the moment where most people playing this game would say "MMOs just aren't for you ( you lazy fu.ck )", and yeah they would be right.. if we were 10 years ago. I know the words "X is dying" is way overused in the gaming community, but this one you can't deny, MMOs are a dying breed. less and less people want to go through excessive amounts of grinding to finally get to play the interesting content, and maybe it's time to change and follow the trend.

I wouldn't go on and say that on WoW forums or any other MMO, i'm doing it here because it looks like it's the direction that Anet tried to follow with GW2 ( which is why people like me joined in the first place. ), with things like instant access to PvP with everyone on an equal footing, leveling up to 80 when you're doing a fractal or WvW, but I just feel like it's not enough, because in the end leveling up to 80 in fractals and WvW is honestly useless, you're still worthless without perks and gear.So yeah to sum it up, I feel like Anet took the direction of making end game content accessible to new players, but they just didn't take the idea far enough. ( absolutely no clue if what I just said is correct in english, but i guess you'll get what i mean )*quick precision, i'm not expecting PvE and WvW to work just like PvP, I understand why they want us to have our own gear and perks when we participate in WvW or PvE, I just feel like it's way too tedious to get there.

Now, PvP :

i'd like to mention i've played most available competitive games on the market to a decent level in most cases ( worst being high silver in one game, and best being top 6-7% world in another game ).take this as you will, you could either throw it away and ignore what I just said or you could chose to consider that spending so much time in competitive games gives me at least a basic understanding of how things are done in this type of games.

The combat and the freedom allowed in builds and specializations are amazing, there's a lot of depth to it and it's especially refreshing for someone coming from "specialized" competitive games.

The main PvP game mode, 5V5 ( and from what i understand the only playable mode outside of pre seasons ) is a complete mess.

• 3 points all simultaneously active, yeah that's gonna be a complete mess, uneven fights outnumbering opponents or being outnumbered. I don't think that makes for fun games. and can we please not try to pretend it adds depth or strategy to the game mode ? it doesn't. the "meta" of what people should do and what you need in your team comp is set in stone.
• even though my personal opinion is that the entire idea of 3 points simultaneously active should be thrown away, i'm still gonna mention that the walking time between points is goddamn awful, yeah there are dedicated roamer builds to get around that, if you were going to answer that i'd simply reply with " have you ever played solo queue ? ", also i don't like the idea of slotting skills just for moving to one point to another, neither do I like poping off CDs for map mobility.
• cheesy abusable tactics, special mention to certain maps ( sc.rew skyhammer )
• last point i'm not sure about the general consensus here, maybe it's just me being too foreign to MMOs/too straightforward to appreciate, but mesmers and thieves are a pain to me, not saying they're OP or anything ( although i guess there's a point to be made for core condi thief ) but they're frustrating to play against, if you lose to them you're mad, if you win you're just glad it's finally over. i don't know of anyone that enjoys fighting those 2 classes, but again i'm only 1 week old in GW2 so maybe most people are glad they're in the game and i just don't know about it.

Alright so that's it, here's my newbie feedback, and now that i've pulled a literal encyclopedia out of my a.ss I sure hope it will somehow get to the ears ( or eyes for that matter ) of a dev.

Lastly, i'd just really like to emphasize that i'm not trying to detract from the job the devs made with this game, it has a lot of great things going for it, new fresh ideas, and you can really see they're trying to deliver the best experience they can, i can't even begin to imagine the amount of work this game represents. i'm just giving my feedback as a pair of fresh eyes and what i'd like to see improved, what I think could catter to a more "modern" audience without turning it's back on good ol' MMO players.

Also I'm sorry if everything isn't perfectly clear, english is not my mother tongue and I absolutely couldn't bother to read it all back. outta coffee.

Have a good day !

edit : scr.ew kittens.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Crafting is entirely optional. Most players don't craft their gear. There are many avenues to gearing your characters.The Wiki (link above) is a great resource for all things GW2.

Pro tip: You might consider perusing the Forum Rules (Forum CoC) available via the 'Legal Documentation' link below, as well.

Welcome to Tyria.

[zaekeon.5128]

The guides for crafting are pretty quick. When you are 80 there are good farms you can do that net you quite a bit of gold per hour. Considering everything is so account bound and you will only have to level any profession you need 1 time I think it’s quite reasonable. Look at gw2crafts.net. There are normal and fast guides for crafting that let you calculate out how much it will cost with the current Tradinf Post prices and your current mats to max out a profession.

I will say 400-500 is a higher investment but that’s because it’s for crafting ascended items. Remember ascended item that’s are a very small difference in stats from exotic. I think besides fractals it’s completely fine to run exotics for quite a while. Ascended and legendary gear is more of a goal and journey. I think things in this game are really only grinds if you make them grinds.

Also what the above poster said—there are other ways besides crafting to get ascended gear. Trinkets example are a huge chunk of stats and they are super easy to get ascended pieces for.

Check out living story season 3 episode 3 or living story season 4 episode 6...again those are just examples there are many more.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Good news! You don't need to craft your gear! Exotic is cheap and ubiquitous and only 5% less stats than legendary/ascended!

[Urud.4925]

In general I would avoid to give feedback for an MMO (about end-game gear for example) after only 1 week, but it's also true that a fresh eye can be useful to realise something that many other players don't notice anymore.

• The crafting is not very expensive if you already have around 40-50 gold in your inventory and you know which guide to follow. It's cheap for most of the players, but I remember that when I started I wanted to craft (you know, you get exp also from that, so... why not) and I realised that it was very expensive for me. I didn't know about discoveries or guides though, so I wasted a lot of my precious gold. A crafting boost is also useful. If you buy all the mats in advance and know what to craft, you should be at 500 points with 1 single boost (2 hours) and 35-40 gold (depending on the profession). I wouldn't call it a lot of investment in time, but I agree it's expensive for a new player. But in general crafting is always something you do towards the end game, in many MMO. I would add some tutorial for the discoveries though (maybe they did it).

• The ascended gear is the same for all the game modes. I mean, you can get the gear through crafting, doing competitive sPvP, playing a lot of WvW, farming strike missions, doing fractals, farming world bosses (and praying for a box drop). They all have the same stats, so (unlike other MMOs) you can choose which game mode you like the most and play that. If you like the PvP, you don't need to learn the crafting for the ascended gear (and the gear is account bound). Also, as other players said, the exotic gear is only 5% less powerful than the ascended one, so you can have a good gear with around 15 gold (that's 1 week of dailies). You only really need the ascended gear for #20+ fractals.Just out of curiosity, which MMO has less grind (less than 28 days) for a permanent end-game gear? (I might be interested :D )

• I only play 1 PvP match per day, as daily, so I'm not an expert. The 3 points to cap always active are quite fine for me. And yes, it adds a small level of strategy (even if you said don't say it!). Other maps have 1 capping point at fixed time (like the bell or in skyhammer) but often players don't even bother for those. If you had only 1 point, then all the players will simply camp there. No one would play thief for example. Everyone would play necro/scourge and support. I think it would be more boring (I always play solo queue).

• I got the champion title only on my thief and my mesmer (well, and a core warrior)... so yeah, I understand your point. The mesmer was very easy to play honestly and annoying for the enemy. But it was way worse before. It has been heavily nerfed (especially the condi mirage). Thieves are also annoying but I'd ask you to play it one before, to see if they are really easy to play. They can die very quickly. The condi thief has been also nerfed months ago. In general ArenaNet delivers balance patches quite frequently, so I wouldn't cry loud if some class is too strong. There are so many specs, traits, and I think they honestly do a good job in trying to balance them.

[T G.7496]

This game is pretty grindless compared to others I've played. Also, it seems that for some people 'grind' is a pejorative euphemism for just playing the game. I never understand this.

[Remik.7438]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Crafting is entirely optional. Most players don't craft their gear. There are many avenues to gearing your characters.The Wiki (link above) is a great resource for all things GW2.

Pro tip: You might consider perusing the Forum Rules (Forum CoC) available via the 'Legal Documentation' link below, as well.

Welcome to Tyria.

thanks for your reply !yeah that's true, although all of my guildmates told me crafting is the fastest way to get gear ! so if the other ways are even more grindy..about the rules yeah, was just trying to add a bit of humor and although it seemingly failed i don't think i've been offensive to anyone, so it's all good in my eyes tbh. moderators might disagree though, we'll see :pthank you !

[Remik.7438]

@"zaekeon.5128" said:The guides for crafting are pretty quick. When you are 80 there are good farms you can do that net you quite a bit of gold per hour. Considering everything is so account bound and you will only have to level any profession you need 1 time I think it’s quite reasonable. Look at gw2crafts.net. There are normal and fast guides for crafting that let you calculate out how much it will cost with the current Tradinf Post prices and your current mats to max out a profession.

I will say 400-500 is a higher investment but that’s because it’s for crafting ascended items. Remember ascended item that’s are a very small difference in stats from exotic. I think besides fractals it’s completely fine to run exotics for quite a while. Ascended and legendary gear is more of a goal and journey. I think things in this game are really only grinds if you make them grinds.

Also what the above poster said—there are other ways besides crafting to get ascended gear. Trinkets example are a huge chunk of stats and they are super easy to get ascended pieces for.

Check out living story season 3 episode 3 or living story season 4 episode 6...again those are just examples there are many more.

thanks for your reply :)yeah, it didn't look "pretty quick" to me but i admit i might be talking a bit too fast here, as i didn't actually level any job to 500.just gonna mention though that it took me about 45 minutes to get armorsmithing to 46, but yeah I was fully discovering the carfting system so that might be why, I can see it being much faster now that i have some notions about how it works.about exotics, yeah the difference is only 6% if the numbers on the wiki are right, but honestly it could be 1% it would bother me the same, the simple idea that we're not fighting on an equal footing ( however small the difference is ) can turn off a lot of people I think. one again, the gaming landscape and expecations have changed quite a bit in 10 years, and I definitely think " absolutely fair fights" is a requirement for most .

[Remik.7438]

@AliamRationem.5172 said:Good news! You don't need to craft your gear! Exotic is cheap and ubiquitous and only 5% less stats than legendary/ascended!

thanks for your reply !6% if the wiki is right, and yeah as i stated above (won't detail as much here), i do'nt like the idea, however small the difference is :p

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Remik.7438 said:

@AliamRationem.5172 said:Good news! You don't need to craft your gear! Exotic is cheap and ubiquitous and only 5% less stats than legendary/ascended!

thanks for your reply !6% if the wiki is right, and yeah as i stated above (won't detail as much here), i do'nt like the idea, however small the difference is :p

Well, enjoy your unnecessary forced grind I guess? I'll just be over here soloing champions in trash greens with a trash build because timing dodges and other skills is simply a lot more important than the price tag on your gear in this game!

[Dawdler.8521]

@Remik.7438 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Crafting is entirely optional. Most players don't craft their gear. There are many avenues to gearing your characters.The Wiki (link above) is a great resource for all things GW2.

Pro tip: You might consider perusing the Forum Rules (Forum CoC) available via the 'Legal Documentation' link below, as well.

Welcome to Tyria.

thanks for your reply !yeah that's true, although all of my guildmates told me crafting is the fastest way to get gear ! so if the other ways are even more grindy..about the rules yeah, was just trying to add a bit of humor and although it seemingly failed i don't think i've been offensive to anyone, so it's all good in my eyes tbh. moderators might disagree though, we'll see :pthank you !If you

already have maxed crafting

its the fastest way. If not well then no. The trading post is the fastest.

The simple fact is that yes, you want to max crafting. Its good for material management, specific gear that cant be traded, food, ascended gear, etc. You want all the disciplines spread across your characters (2 different per character is active, you can have everything on one character but its pretty pointless). But its a thing you can do over time. Power levelling crafting cost a fair bit of gold.

[Remik.7438]

@"Urud.4925" said:In general I would avoid to give feedback for an MMO (about end-game gear for example) after only 1 week, but it's also true that a fresh eye can be useful to realise something that many other players don't notice anymore.

• The crafting is not very expensive if you already have around 40-50 gold in your inventory and you know which guide to follow. It's cheap for most of the players, but I remember that when I started I wanted to craft (you know, you get exp also from that, so... why not) and I realised that it was very expensive for me. I didn't know about discoveries or guides though, so I wasted a lot of my precious gold. A crafting boost is also useful. If you buy all the mats in advance and know what to craft, you should be at 500 points with 1 single boost (2 hours) and 35-40 gold (depending on the profession). I wouldn't call it a lot of investment in time, but I agree it's expensive for a new player. But in general crafting is always something you do towards the end game, in many MMO. I would add some tutorial for the discoveries though (maybe they did it).

• The ascended gear is the same for all the game modes. I mean, you can get the gear through crafting, doing competitive sPvP, playing a lot of WvW, farming strike missions, doing fractals, farming world bosses (and praying for a box drop). They all have the same stats, so (unlike other MMOs) you can choose which game mode you like the most and play that. If you like the PvP, you don't need to learn the crafting for the ascended gear (and the gear is account bound). Also, as other players said, the exotic gear is only 5% less powerful than the ascended one, so you can have a good gear with around 15 gold (that's 1 week of dailies). You only really need the ascended gear for #20+ fractals.Just out of curiosity, which MMO has less grind (less than 28 days) for a permanent end-game gear? (I might be interested :D )

• I only play 1 PvP match per day, as daily, so I'm not an expert. The 3 points to cap always active are quite fine for me. And yes, it adds a small level of strategy (even if you said don't say it!). Other maps have 1 capping point at fixed time (like the bell or in skyhammer) but often players don't even bother for those. If you had only 1 point, then all the players will simply camp there. No one would play thief for example. Everyone would play necro/scourge and support. I think it would be more boring (I always play solo queue).

• I got the champion title only on my thief and my mesmer (well, and a core warrior)... so yeah, I understand your point. The mesmer was very easy to play honestly and annoying for the enemy. But it was way worse before. It has been heavily nerfed (especially the condi mirage). Thieves are also annoying but I'd ask you to play it one before, to see if they are really easy to play. They can die very quickly. The condi thief has been also nerfed months ago. In general ArenaNet delivers balance patches quite frequently, so I wouldn't cry loud if some class is too strong. There are so many specs, traits, and I think they honestly do a good job in trying to balance them.

thanks for your reply :)

• yeaaah I think you're talking as an experienced crafter there, with boosts that a beginner won't have access to, I honestly don't think the 2 hour thing applies for everyone. and even though, considering my case, that would be 6 jobs I have to level just to gear 2 characters, which is 6 x 2= 12h of constant running from trade post to craft bench and mindlessly clicking buttons.. plus as I said, i think it will be way more than 12 hours for most people.

• oh can we get gear directly from sPvP? all i've seen were recipes for ascended gear that can be traded for laurels, but i mean, these are jsut recipes so i take it you still need to have your job leveled in order to actually craft the gear. although if we can directly get gear from sPvP i'd be glad to know how ^^yeah about the ascended being only 6 (or 5 ?) % better than exotic, i answered that with a bit more details in my second reply, but yeah, i don't like the idea of not fighting on an equal footing, however small the difference is.about an MMO having less grind than this one i don't know of any, again i don't usually play MMOs, although i keep on eye of what's being done in most game genres. anyways no MMO has less grind than this one to my knowledge, sorry :/

• yeah i think only one point wouldn't be great either because in most cases you'd know who's gonna win after the first fight, and it also would kick out all of the builds that aren't teamfight oriented. got some beginning of ideas for some decent pvp modes, although i'm no game designer, but eh, it could just be the foundation of an idea/design, or it could just be trash, but it doesn't hurt trying. Not sure i'll bother posting them though.

-Mhm.. I mean i don't wanna be rude there but I especially stated that i'm not complaining about the classes being OP, although once again core condi thief considered top tier by most and can bring you down in record times, but that's not what i'm talking about, i guess nerfs and buffs come and go as in any other game.I "'complained" ( although mentioning that it might just be me and my limited pool of "mates" in the game ) about the classes being boring / frustrating to fight.once again my point wasn't saying that they're OP or too easy to play, in fact i'm even pretty sure i would be terrible with one of those classes/builds because they seem to require finesse and timing, and i'm terrible at that, i like straightforward things, simple things, like an axe in a skull or casually droping a comet or two on some poor soul.about the balance, yeah, I mean revenant actually seems really overtuned but yeah with so many classes, elite specs and possibilities for different builds i'm honestly amazed ( in a good way ) at the current state of balance in PvP. anyways no matter what one might think about the current state of balance, at least you can't deny the fact that devs are trying, i mean it's not in every MMO that you see skills having different values / cooldowns for PvP and PvE.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@Remik.7438 said:

@"Urud.4925" said:In general I would avoid to give feedback for an MMO (about end-game gear for example) after only 1 week, but it's also true that a fresh eye can be useful to realise something that many other players don't notice anymore.

• The crafting is not very expensive if you already have around 40-50 gold in your inventory and you know which guide to follow. It's cheap for most of the players, but I remember that when I started I wanted to craft (you know, you get exp also from that, so... why not) and I realised that it was very expensive for me. I didn't know about discoveries or guides though, so I wasted a lot of my precious gold. A crafting boost is also useful. If you buy all the mats in advance and know what to craft, you should be at 500 points with 1 single boost (2 hours) and 35-40 gold (depending on the profession). I wouldn't call it a lot of investment in time, but I agree it's expensive for a new player. But in general crafting is always something you do towards the end game, in many MMO. I would add some tutorial for the discoveries though (maybe they did it).

• The ascended gear is the same for all the game modes. I mean, you can get the gear through crafting, doing competitive sPvP, playing a lot of WvW, farming strike missions, doing fractals, farming world bosses (and praying for a box drop). They all have the same stats, so (unlike other MMOs) you can choose which game mode you like the most and play that. If you like the PvP, you don't need to learn the crafting for the ascended gear (and the gear is account bound). Also, as other players said, the exotic gear is only 5% less powerful than the ascended one, so you can have a good gear with around 15 gold (that's 1 week of dailies). You only really need the ascended gear for #20+ fractals.Just out of curiosity, which MMO has less grind (less than 28 days) for a permanent end-game gear? (I might be interested :D )

• I only play 1 PvP match per day, as daily, so I'm not an expert. The 3 points to cap always active are quite fine for me. And yes, it adds a small level of strategy (even if you said don't say it!). Other maps have 1 capping point at fixed time (like the bell or in skyhammer) but often players don't even bother for those. If you had only 1 point, then all the players will simply camp there. No one would play thief for example. Everyone would play necro/scourge and support. I think it would be more boring (I always play solo queue).

• I got the champion title only on my thief and my mesmer (well, and a core warrior)... so yeah, I understand your point. The mesmer was very easy to play honestly and annoying for the enemy. But it was way worse before. It has been heavily nerfed (especially the condi mirage). Thieves are also annoying but I'd ask you to play it one before, to see if they are really easy to play. They can die very quickly. The condi thief has been also nerfed months ago. In general ArenaNet delivers balance patches quite frequently, so I wouldn't cry loud if some class is too strong. There are so many specs, traits, and I think they honestly do a good job in trying to balance them.

thanks for your reply :)

• yeaaah I think you're talking as an experienced crafter there, with boosts that a beginner won't have access to, I honestly don't think the 2 hour thing applies for everyone. and even though, considering my case, that would be 6 jobs I have to level just to gear 2 characters, which is 6 x 2= 12h of constant running from trade post to craft bench and mindlessly clicking buttons.. plus as I said, i think it will be way more than 12 hours for most people.

• oh can we get gear directly from sPvP? all i've seen were recipes for ascended gear that can be traded for laurels, but i mean, these are jsut recipes so i take it you still need to have your job leveled in order to actually craft the gear. although if we can directly get gear from sPvP i'd be glad to know how ^^yeah about the ascended being only 6 (or 5 ?) % better than exotic, i answered that with a bit more details in my second reply, but yeah, i don't like the idea of not fighting on an equal footing, however small the difference is.about an MMO having less grind than this one i don't know of any, again i don't usually play MMOs, although i keep on eye of what's being done in most game genres. anyways no MMO has less grind than this one to my knowledge, sorry :/

• yeah i think only one point wouldn't be great either because in most cases you'd know who's gonna win after the first fight, and it also would kick out all of the builds that aren't teamfight oriented. got some beginning of ideas for some decent pvp modes, although i'm no game designer, but eh, it could just be the foundation of an idea/design, or it could just be trash, but it doesn't hurt trying. Not sure i'll bother posting them though.

-Mhm.. I mean i don't wanna be rude there but I

especially

stated that i'm not complaining about the classes being OP, although once again core condi thief considered top tier by most and can bring you down in record times, but that's not what i'm talking about, i guess nerfs and buffs come and go as in any other game.I "'complained" ( although mentioning that it might just be me and my limited pool of "mates" in the game ) about the classes being boring / frustrating to fight.once again my point wasn't saying that they're OP or too easy to play, in fact i'm even pretty sure i would be terrible with one of those classes/builds because they seem to require finesse and timing, and i'm terrible at that, i like straightforward things, simple things, like an axe in a skull or casually droping a comet or two on some poor soul.about the balance, yeah, I mean revenant actually seems really overtuned but yeah with so many classes, elite specs and possibilities for different builds i'm honestly amazed ( in a good way ) at the current state of balance in PvP. anyways no matter what one might think about the current state of balance, at least you can't deny the fact that devs are trying, i mean it's not in every MMO that you see skills having different values / cooldowns for PvP and PvE.

PvP doesn't use PvE gear, so no need to craft (or otherwise acquire) gear for it.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Structured_PvP#PvP_Builds

[zaekeon.5128]

@Remik.7438 said:

@"zaekeon.5128" said:The guides for crafting are pretty quick. When you are 80 there are good farms you can do that net you quite a bit of gold per hour. Considering everything is so account bound and you will only have to level any profession you need 1 time I think it’s quite reasonable. Look at gw2crafts.net. There are normal and fast guides for crafting that let you calculate out how much it will cost with the current Tradinf Post prices and your current mats to max out a profession.

I will say 400-500 is a higher investment but that’s because it’s for crafting ascended items. Remember ascended item that’s are a very small difference in stats from exotic. I think besides fractals it’s completely fine to run exotics for quite a while. Ascended and legendary gear is more of a goal and journey. I think things in this game are really only grinds if you make them grinds.

Also what the above poster said—there are other ways besides crafting to get ascended gear. Trinkets example are a huge chunk of stats and they are super easy to get ascended pieces for.

Check out living story season 3 episode 3 or living story season 4 episode 6...again those are just examples there are many more.

thanks for your reply :)yeah, it didn't look "pretty quick" to me but i admit i might be talking a bit too fast here, as i didn't actually level any job to 500.just gonna mention though that it took me about 45 minutes to get armorsmithing to 46, but yeah I was fully discovering the carfting system so that might be why, I can see it being much faster now that i have some notions about how it works.about exotics, yeah the difference is only 6% if the numbers on the wiki are right, but honestly it could be 1% it would bother me the same, the simple idea that we're not fighting on an equal footing ( however small the difference is ) can turn off a lot of people I think. one again, the gaming landscape and expecations have changed quite a bit in 10 years, and I definitely think "

absolutely

fair fights" is a requirement for most .

Yeah crafting with the guide will go very quick because it tells you everything you need to get and then the order to do it in and which recipes to discover.

I understand what you’re saying about being in equal footing...but keep in mind a main reason to get ascended gear is to have infusion slots so that you can slot ‘agony resistance’ which is only something that’s useful in upper level fractals (potions exist to provide it as well).

Someone with a good build and rotation in exotics can absolutely outperform an average player wearing ascended. Depending on your situation it may take a little bit to get the ascended but if you craft the right set you’ll be set for a very long time. Also rejoice in that you’ll never need to replace it unless you go for a build with different stats and even then you can ‘stat switch’ it using the mystic forge for pretty cheap. And if you ever go for a legendary the stats on those are the same as ascended but they have the ability to stat swap for free so it’s not a power gain but a utility gain (and usually bad ass visuals)

[Urud.4925]

Hola, some additional details:The crafting booster I was referring to, is this one: Item Booster. I thought it was one of the selectable rewards for completing a chapter of the personal story, but I mistook. You get an Heroic Booster as reward for the story, that also grants +50% Chance of Critical Crafting Experience Gain. (So 1 per character) Otherwise, there is the crafting booster that you can buy with 1 Laurel: same bonus, but only for 30 minutes. In addition, there is also the +20% Guild Crafting Boost provided by guilds. But I understand here, not all the players should be forced to join a guild for a bonus (it's not vital, but in case you belong to a guild, there is also this perk, just as note).

You don't need 6 crafting professions for 2 characters. I suggest you to level up only the professions to craft the gear, not the weapons (after the trinkets: they are more important and don't require any crafting). There are many other ways to find an ascended weapon as reward, and the box lets you select the weapon you prefer. There are also the specialization collections (1 weapon for each elite spec, account bound), Knight of the Thorn (you can find a list here). However, I should say that the cost to complete such achievements is often around 30-35 gold, the same than level up the crafting, so... (but you spare the mats to craft the weapon). The first weapon of Knight of the Thorn is cheap though, and the story is cool, so I'd go for that.

About PvP, there are merchants that sell also the gear, not only the recipes. Since you said that you did some competitive PvP, you should have already some ascended shard of glory. But you also need Grandmaster Marks, and to gain these... you have to play a lot of WvW (just stay in the game mode and capture something, for hours). In this case is very grindy though, I must say. It's an additional way for players that dislike the PvE and like to play PvP/WvW. I got some marks, but I never bought an ascended gear this way, so idk how many days you need. Probably still the same amount, 1 month.

I think the fastest and cheapest way nowadays are the Strike Missions: you only need some gold (half of the cost of the mats, if you had to craft it) and crystal shards that you can farm from these missions. Quite easy. If you didn't do it, unlock Eye of the North, you can start these missions from this hub.

And no offense taken about mesmers and thieves :D They are frustrating to fight, I agree. Inside arenas you can usually chase a thief, but when I see a thief running away in WvW, I usually give up, too lazy to run after them (and I also play as thief in WvW...).

[Remik.7438]

@"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

PvP doesn't use PvE gear, so no need to craft (or otherwise acquire) gear for it.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Structured_PvP#PvP_Builds

Mhm yeah i know that, but ty :)

[Remik.7438]

@zaekeon.5128 said:

Yeah crafting with the guide will go very quick because it tells you everything you need to get and then the order to do it in and which recipes to discover.

I understand what you’re saying about being in equal footing...but keep in mind a main reason to get ascended gear is to have infusion slots so that you can slot ‘agony resistance’ which is only something that’s useful in upper level fractals (potions exist to provide it as well).

Someone with a good build and rotation in exotics can absolutely outperform an average player wearing ascended. Depending on your situation it may take a little bit to get the ascended but if you craft the right set you’ll be set for a very long time. Also rejoice in that you’ll never need to replace it unless you go for a build with different stats and even then you can ‘stat switch’ it using the mystic forge for pretty cheap. And if you ever go for a legendary the stats on those are the same as ascended but they have the ability to stat swap for free so it’s not a power gain but a utility gain (and usually bad kitten visuals)

Mhm.. alright, still won't WvW without ascended though, i really can't stand the idea of being at a disadvantage x)although yeah i'm sure glad i won't have to craft multiple sets ! ^^'ty for your reply :)

[Remik.7438]

@"Urud.4925" said:Hola, some additional details:The crafting booster I was referring to, is this one: Item Booster. I thought it was one of the selectable rewards for completing a chapter of the personal story, but I mistook. You get an Heroic Booster as reward for the story, that also grants +50% Chance of Critical Crafting Experience Gain. (So 1 per character) Otherwise, there is the crafting booster that you can buy with 1 Laurel: same bonus, but only for 30 minutes. In addition, there is also the +20% Guild Crafting Boost provided by guilds. But I understand here, not all the players should be forced to join a guild for a bonus (it's not vital, but in case you belong to a guild, there is also this perk, just as note).

You don't need 6 crafting professions for 2 characters. I suggest you to level up only the professions to craft the gear, not the weapons (after the trinkets: they are more important and don't require any crafting). There are many other ways to find an ascended weapon as reward, and the box lets you select the weapon you prefer. There are also the specialization collections (1 weapon for each elite spec, account bound), Knight of the Thorn (you can find a list here). However, I should say that the cost to complete such achievements is often around 30-35 gold, the same than level up the crafting, so... (but you spare the mats to craft the weapon). The first weapon of Knight of the Thorn is cheap though, and the story is cool, so I'd go for that.

About PvP, there are merchants that sell also the gear, not only the recipes. Since you said that you did some competitive PvP, you should have already some ascended shard of glory. But you also need Grandmaster Marks, and to gain these... you have to play a lot of WvW (just stay in the game mode and capture something, for hours). In this case is very grindy though, I must say. It's an additional way for players that dislike the PvE and like to play PvP/WvW. I got some marks, but I never bought an ascended gear this way, so idk how many days you need. Probably still the same amount, 1 month.

I think the fastest and cheapest way nowadays are the Strike Missions: you only need some gold (half of the cost of the mats, if you had to craft it) and crystal shards that you can farm from these missions. Quite easy. If you didn't do it, unlock Eye of the North, you can start these missions from this hub.

And no offense taken about mesmers and thieves :D They are frustrating to fight, I agree. Inside arenas you can usually chase a thief, but when I see a thief running away in WvW, I usually give up, too lazy to run after them (and I also play as thief in WvW...).

aight thanks for your reply !I definitely didn't think these boosters were so accessible, looks like i can get some :pWhat i take from all of this is that yeah, crafting is still the best way to go so i'll just (hopefully) put up with it, and those strike missions that i had no idea about, gonna look into it asap ! :)ty :)and yeah, my suspicions that absolutely everyone who isn't a thief or a mesmer hates them only grow stronger :')

[Kaida.1478]

You'd be better off going to WvW in your exotics, learning how it works, practising etc... Using the stuff you get in WvW to get the ascended gear and then increasing your stats by that 5% and enjoying the time you spend playing than worrying about "grinding" gold or a mode you don't enjoy for it.

Not everyone you are playing against in WvW is going to be in full ascended gear either.

I don't do a lot of WvW but I'm pretty sure you can get ascended armour with just Skirmish Tickets and Memory of Battle. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on this.

[zaekeon.5128]

@"Kaida.1478" said:You'd be better off going to WvW in your exotics, learning how it works, practising etc... Using the stuff you get in WvW to get the ascended gear and then increasing your stats by that 5% and enjoying the time you spend playing than worrying about "grinding" gold or a mode you don't enjoy for it.

Not everyone you are playing against in WvW is going to be in full ascended gear either.

And I would go as far to say that unless you are 1v1ing someone exotics or ascended gear won’t save you if the enemy blob comes mowing over you. Staying right together with your group in WvW is more important than 5% stats

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

No offense, but having Ascended gear won't make a difference in WvW. Or anywhere else, (sans high-level Fractals).It's skill that matters here, not gear.

[Remik.7438]

Mhm... i mean i'm 100% convinced you all are right, 5 or 6% stats diff indeed seems to be pretty meaningless, and i'll take the advice of kaida and will try to WvW before ascended. i'm just not sure i will though, i can get pretty "fixated" on things. We'll see how it goes :p